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THE VISION; 



OR 



HELL, PURGATORY, AND PARADISE, 



OF 



/ 
DANTE ALIGHIERI. 



TRANSLATED BY 



THE REV. HENRY FRANCIS CARY, M. A. 



& Neto IStrttton, Corrected. 



WITH THE LIFE OF DANTE, CHRONOLOGICAL VIEW OF HIS 
AGE, ADDITIONAL NOTES, AND INDEX. 



LONDON : 

HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 

MDCCCXLVII. 



\ 



PQ.43I5- 

,C4 
[8 4.7 




JOHN CHILDS AND SON, BUNGAY. 



«o 






CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

PREFACE ------ y 

LIFE OF DANTE ix 

CHRONOLOGICAL VIEW OF THE AGE OF DANTE xlii 

THE VISION OF DANTE : 

Hell, Canto L— XXXIV. 1 

Purgatory, Canto I. — XXXIII. - 177 

Paradise, Canto L— XXXIII. - - 357 

INDEX 529 



PREFACE, 



IN the years 1805 and 1806, I published the First Part of 
the following Translation, with the Text of the Original. 
Since that period, two impressions of the whole of the 
Divina Commedia, in Italian, have made their appearance in 
this country. It is not necessary that I should add a third : 
and I am induced to hope that the Poem, even in the present 
version of it, may not be without interest for the mere 
English reader. 

The translation of the Second and Third Parts, " The 
Purgatory " and " The Paradise," was begun long before 
the First, and as early as the year 1797 ; but, owing to 
many interruptions, not concluded till the summer before 
last. On a retrospect of the time and exertions that have 
been thus employed, I do not regard those hours as the least 

>py of my life, during which (to use the eloquent language 
of Mr. Coleridge) "my individual recollections have been 



(vi) PREFACE. 

suspended, and lulled to sleep amid the music of nobler 
thoughts ;" nor that study misapplied, which has familiarized 
me with one of the sublimest efforts of the human invention. 

To those, who shall be at the trouble of examining into 
the degree of accuracy with which the task has been exe- 
cuted, I may be allowed to suggest, that their judgment 
should not be formed on a comparison with any single text of 
my Author ; since, in more instances than I have noticed, I 
have had to make my choice out of a variety of readings 
and interpretations, presented by different editions and com- 
mentators. 

In one or two of those editions is to be found the title of 
" The Vision ; " which I have adopted, as more conformable 
to the genius of our language than that of " The Divine 
Comedy.'* Dante himself, I believe, termed it simply " The 
Comedy ; " in the first place, because the style was of the 
middle kind ; and in the next, because the story (if story it 
may be called) ends happily. 

January f 1814. 



PREFACE. (vii) 



The above Advertisement was prefixed to an edition of 
the following Translation, printed in so small a character as 
to deter a numerous class of readers from perusing it. 
Amongst the few into whose hands it fell, about two years 
ago, Mr. Coleridge became one ; and I have both a pride and 
a pleasure in acknowledging, that it has been chiefly owing 
to the prompt and strenuous exertions of that Gentleman in 
recommending the book to public notice, that the opportunity 
has been afforded me of sending it forth in its present form. 

July, 1819. 



When a Third Edition was called for in 1831, my duties 
as an Assistant Librarian in the British Museum were such 
as to prevent me from engaging in any task that would have 
required an increase of sedentary labour. I was thus hin- 
dered not only from attending to the accuracy of the press, 
(which indeed the care of my Publisher rendered almost un- 
necessary,) but from collecting and putting in order the 
several corrections and additions, which I had occasionally 
noted with the purpose of introducing them into that 
edition. 

A long interval of leisure may since have enabled me to 
do more effectually what I was before compelled to leave 






(viii) PREFACE. 

undone. In the hope of rendering the Life of Dante and 
the Notes on the Poem less imperfect, I have consulted most 
of the writers by whom my Author has been recently illus- 
trated. Wherever an omission or an error in the translation 
has been pointed out to me, I have done my best to supply 
the one and to correct the other ; and my obligations in all 
these instances are acknowledged in the Notes. Among 
those who have not thought a few hours thrown away in 
noticing such oversights, it is gratifying to me to mention 
the names of Mr. Carlyle, one of the most original thinkers 
of our time; my long experienced friend, Mr. Darley, one 
of our most genuine poets ; and Mr. Lyell, my respected 
fellow-labourer in the mine of Dante. At an advanced age, 
I do not imagine myself capable of otherwise improving an 
attempt which, however defective, has at least the advantage 
of having had my earlier days bestowed on it. 

February, 1844. 



LIFE OF DANTE 



JjANTE 1 , a name abbreviated, as was the custom in those 
days, from Durante or Durando, was of a very ancient Flo- 
rentine family. The first of his ancestors 2 , concerning whom 
any thing certain is known, was Cacciaguida 3 , a Florentine 
knight, who died fighting in the holy war, under the Emperor 
Conrad III. Cacciaguida had two brothers, Moronto and 
Eliseo, the former of whom is not recorded to have left any 
posterity ; the latter is the head of the family of the Elisei, or 
perhaps (for it is doubtful which is the case) only transmitted 
to his descendants a name which he had himself inherited. 
From Cacciaguida himself were sprung the Alighieri, so called 
from one of his sons, who bore the appellation from his mother's 
family 4 , as is affirmed by the Poet himself, under the person 
of Cacciaguida, in the fifteenth canto of the Paradise. This 



1 A note by Salvini, on Muratori della Perf. Poes. Ital. lib. iii. cap. 8. 

2 Leonardo Aretino, Vita di Dante. 

3 Par. xv. He was born, as most have supposed, in 1106, and died about 
1147. But Lombard! computes his birth to have happened about 1090. See 
note to Par. xvi. 31. For what is known of his descendants till the birth of 
Dante, see note to Par. xv. 86. 

4 Yellutello, Vita di Dante. There is reason to suppose that she was the 
daughter of Aldigerio, who was a lawyer of Verona, and brother of one of 
the same name, bishop of that city, and author of an epistle addressed to his 
mother, a religious recluse, with the title of Tractatus Adalgeri Episc. ad 
Rosuvidam reclausam (or, ad Orismundam matrem inclusam) de Rebus mo- 
ralibus. See Cancellieri Osservazioni, &c. Roma, 1818, p. 119. 



(x) LIFE OF DANTE. 

name, Alighieri, is derived from the coat of arms l , a wing or, 
on a field azure, still borne by the descendants of our Poet at 
Verona, in the days of Leonardo Aretino. 

Dante was born at Florence in May, 1265. His mother's 
name was Bella, but of what family is no longer known. His 
father 2 he had the misfortune to lose in his childhood ; but by 
the advice of his surviving relations, and with the assistance of 
an able preceptor, Brunetto Latini, he applied himself closely to 
polite literature and other liberal studies, at the same time that 
he omitted no pursuit necessary for the accomplishment of a 
manly character, and mixed with the youth of his age in ail 
honourable and noble exercises. 

In the twenty-fourth year of his age, he was present at the 
memorable battle of Campaldino 3 , where he served in the fore- 
most troop of cavalry, and was exposed to imminent danger- 
Leonardo Aretino refers to a letter of Dante, in which he de- 
scribed the order of that battle, and mentioned his having been 
engaged in it. The cavalry of the Aretini at the first onset 
gained so great an advantage over the Florentine horse, as to 
compel them to retreat to their body of infantry. This cir- 
cumstance in the event proved highly fortunate to the Floren- 
tines ; for their own cavalry being thus joined to their foot, 
while that of their enemies was led by the pursuit to a con- 
siderable distance from theirs, they were by these means en- 
abled to defeat with ease their separate forces. In this battle, 
the Uberti, Lamberti, and Abati, with all the other ex-citizens 
of Florence who adhered to the Ghibelline 4 interest, were with 
the Aretini ; while those inhabitants of Arezzo, who, owing 
to their attachment to the Guelph 4 party, had been banished 
from their own city, were ranged on the side of the Floren- 
tines. In the following year, Dante took part in another en- 

1 Pelli describes the arms differently. Memorie per la Vita di Dante. 
Opere di Dante. Ediz. Zatta, 1758, torn. iv. part. ii. p. 16. The male line 
ended in Pietro, the sixth in descent from our Poet, and father of Ginevra, 
married in 1549 to the Conte Marcantonio Sarego, of Verona. Pelli, p. 19. 

2 His father Alighiero had been before married to Lapa, daughter of 
Chiarissimo Cialuffi ; and by her had a son named Francesco, who left two 
daughters and a son, whom he named Durante after his brother. Francesco 
appears to have been mistaken for a son of our Poet's. Boccaccio mentions 
also a sister of Dante, who was married to Poggi, and was the mother of 
Andrea Poggi, Boccaccio's intimate. Pelli, p. 267. 

s G. Villani describes this engagement, lib. vii. cap. cxxx. 

4 For the supposed origin of these denominations, see note to Par. \i. 107. 



LIFE OF DANTE. (xi) 

gagement between his countrymen and the citizens of Pisa, 
from whom they took the castle of Caprona \ situated not far 
from that city. 

From what the Poet has told us in his Treatise, entitled 
the Vita Nuova, we learn that he was a lover long before he 
was a soldier, and that his passion for the Beatrice whom he 
has immortalized, commenced 2 when she was at the beginning 
and he near the end of his ninth year. Their first meeting 
was at a banquet in the house of Folco Portinari 3 her father ; 
and the impression, then made on the susceptible and constant 
heart of Dante, was not obliterated by her death, which hap- 
pened after an interval of sixteen years. 

But neither war, nor love, prevented Dante from gratify- 
ing the earnest desire which he had of knowledge and mental 
improvement. By Benvenuto da Imola, one of the earliest of 
his commentators, it is related, that he studied in his youth 
at the universities of Bologna and Padua, as well as in that of 
his native city, and devoted himself to the pursuit of natural 
and moral philosophy. There is reason to believe that his 
eagerness for the acquisition of learning, at some time of his 
life, led him as far as Paris, and even Oxford 4 ; in the former 

» Hell, xxi. 92. 

t See also the beginning of the Vita Nuova. 

3 Folco di Ricovero Portinari was the founder of the hospital of S. Maria 
Nuova, in 1280, and of other charitable institutions, and died in 1289, as 
appeared from his epitaph. Pelli, p. 55. 

4 Giovanni Yillani, who was his contemporary, and, as Villani himself 
says, his neighbour in Florence, informs us, that " he went to study at 
Bologna, and then to Paris, and to many parts of the world," (an expression 
that may well include England,) "subsequently to his banishment/' Hist. 
lib. ix.cap. cxxxv Indeed, as we shall see, it is uncertain whether he might 
not have been more than once a student at Paris. 

But the fact of his having visited England rests on a passage alluding to it 
in the Latin poems of Boccaccio, and on the authority of Giovanni da Ser- 
ravalle, Bishop of Fermo, who, as Tiraboschi observes, though he lived at 
the distance of a century from Dante, might have known those who were 
contemporaries with him. This writer, in an inedited commentary on the 
Commedia, written while he was attending the council of Constance, says of 
our Poet : " Anagorice dilexit theologiam sacram, in qua diu studuit tarn in 
Oxoniis in regno Angliae, quam Parisiis in regno Franciae," &c. And 
again; "Dantes se in juventute dedit omnibus artibus liberalibus, studens 
eos Padua?, Bononia?, demum Oxoniis et Parisiis, ubi fecit multos actus 
mirabiles, intantum quod ab aliquibus dicebatur magnus philosophus, ab 
aliquibus magnus Theologus, ab aliquibus magnus poeta." Tiraboschi, Stor. 
delta Poes. Ital. vol. ii. cap. iv. p. 14, as extracted from Tiraboschi's great 
work by Mathias, and edited by that gentleman. Lond. 1803. 



(xii) LIFE OF DANTE. 

of which universities he is said to have taken the degree of a 
Bachelor, and distinguished himself in the theological disputa- 
tions ; but to have been hindered from commencing Master, 
by a failure in his pecuniary resources. Francesco da Buti, 
another of his commentators in the fourteenth century, asserts 
that he entered the order of the Frati Minori, but laid aside 
the habit before he was professed. 

In his own city, domestic troubles, and yet more severe 
public calamities, awaited him. In 1291, he was induced, by 
the solicitation of his friends, to console himself for the loss of 
Beatrice by a matrimonial connexion with Gemma, a lady of 
the noble family of the Donati, by whom he had a numerous 
offspring. But the violence of her temper proved a source of 
the bitterest suffering to him ; and in that passage of the In- 
ferno, where one of the characters says, 

La fiera moglie piu ch' altro, mi mioce. 

Canto xvi. 

me, my wife 

Of savage temper, more than aught beside, 
Hath to this evil brought, 

his own conjugal unhappiness must have recurred forcibly and 
painfully to his mind 1 . It is not improbable that political 



The bishop translated the poem itself into Latin prose, at the instance of 
Cardinal Amedeo di Saluzzo, and of two English bishops, Nicholas Bubwith, 
of Bath, and Robert Halam, of Salisbury, who attended the same council. 
One copy only of the version and commentary is known to be preserved, and 
that is in the Vatican. I would suggest the probability of others existing 
in this country. Stillingfleet, in the Origines Sacrae, twice quotes passages 
from the Paradiso, " rendered into Latin," (and it is I °tin prose,) as that 
learned bishop says, " by F. S." Orig. Sacr. b. ii. chap. -c. sect, xviii. § 4, 
and chap. x. sect. v. Edit. Cambridge, 1701. See notes to Par. xxiv. 86, 
and 104. This work was begun in February 1416, and finished in the same 
month of the following year. 

The word "anagorice" (into which the Italians altered " anagogice ") 
which occurs in the former of the above extracts, is explained by Dante h± 
the Convito. Opere di Dante, torn. i. p. 43. Ediz. Venez. 1793, and more 
briefly by Field. Of the Church, b. iii. cap. 26. " The Anagogicall" sense 
is, " when the things literally expressed unto us do signifie something in the 
state of heaven's happiness." It was used by the Greek Fathers to signify 
merely a more recondite sense in a text of Scripture than that which the 
plain words offered. See Origen in Houth's Reliquiae Sacrae, vol. iv. 
p. 323. 

1 Yet M. Artaud, in his " Histoire de Dante" (8vo. Paris, 1841, p. 85), 
represents Gemma as a tender, faithful, and affectionate wife. I certainly 



LIFE OF DANTE. (xiii) 

animosity might have had some share in these dissensions ; 
for his wife was a kinswoman of Corso Donati, one of the' 
most formidable, as he was one of the most inveterate of his 
opponents. 

In 1300 he was chosen chief of the Priors, who at that 
time possessed the supreme authority in the state ; his col 
leagues being Palmieri degli Altoviti and Neri di Jacop< 
degli Alberti. From this exaltation our Poet dated the caus< 
of all his subsequent misfortunes in life l : 

In order to show the occasion of Dante's exile, it may be 
necessary to enter more particularly into the state of parties 
at Florence. The city, which had been disturbed by many 
divisions between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, at length re- 
mained in the power of the former ; but after some time these 
were again split into two factions. This perverse occurrence 
originated with the inhabitants of Pistoia, who, from an un- 
happy quarrel between two powerful families in that city, wen 
all separated into parties known by those denominations. Wit] 
the intention of composing their differences, the principals 0) 
each side were summoned to the city of Florence ; but thi 
measure, instead of remedying the evil, only contributed tt 
increase its virulence, by communicating it to the citizens o 
Florence themselves. For the contending parties were so fa: 
from being brought to a reconciliation, that each contrived t' 
gain fresh partisans among the Florentines, with whom man 
of them were closely connected by the ties of blood and friend 
ship ; and who entered into the dispute with such acrimun, 
and eagerness, that the whole city was soon engaged either on 
one part or the' J other, and even brothers of the same family 
were divided. -\ "_t was not long before they passed, by tht 
usual gradations, from contumely to violence. The factions 
were now known by the names of the Neri and the Bianchi, 
the former generally siding with the Guelphs or adherents of 
the papal power, the latter with the Ghibellines or those who 



do not find any mention of her unhappy temper in the early biographers 
Regard for her or for her children might have restrained them. But in th< 
next century, Landino, though commending her good qualities, does no 
scruple to assert that in this respect she was more than a Xanthippe. 

1 Leonardo Aretino. A late biographer, on the authority of Marchiomv. 
Stefani, assigns different colleagues to Dante in his office of Prior. Se 
Balbo, Vita di Dante, vol. i. p. 219. Ediz. Torin. 1839. 



(xi- ) LIFE OF DANTE. 

supported the authority of the Emperor. The Neri assembled 
ecretlj in the church of the Holy Trinity, and determined 
on interceding with Pope Boniface VIII. to send Charles of 
Valois to pacify and reform the city. No sooner did this re- 
solution come to the knowledge of the Bianchi, than, struck 
g r ith apprehension at the consequences of such a measure, 
ihey took arms, and repaired to the Priors ; demanding of 
-hem the punishment of their adversaries, for having thus 
entered into private deliberations concerning the state, which 
they represented to have been done with the view of expelling 
them from the city. Those who had met, being alarmed in 
their turn, had also recourse to arms, and made their com- 
plaints to the Priors. Accusing their opponents of having 
armed themselves without any previous public discussion ; 
ind affirming that, under various pretexts, they had sought to 
]lrive them out of their country, they demanded that they 
night be punished as disturbers of the public tranquillity. 
The dread and danger became general, when, by the advice of 
)ante, the Priors called in the multitude to their protection 
nd assistance ; and then proceeded to banish the principals 
f the two factions, who were these : Corso Donati \ Geri 
Kpini, Giachonotto de' Pazzi, Rosso della Tosa, and others of 
phe Nera party, who were exiled to the Castello della Pieve 
1 Perugia ; and of the Bianca party, who were banished to 
errazana, Gentile and Torrigiano de' Cerchi, Guido Caval- 
mti 2 , Baschiera della Tosa, Baldinaccio Adimari, Naldo son 
a Lottino Gherardini, and others. On this occasion Dante 
was accused of favouring the Bianchi, though he appears to 
have conducted himself with impartiality ; and the delibera- 
tion held by the Neri for introducing Charles of Valois 3 might, 
loerhaps, have justified him in treating that party with yet 
greater rigour. The suspicion against him was increased, 
Jwhen those, whom he was accused of favouring, were soon 
after allowed to return from their banishment, while the sen- 
tence passed upon the other faction still remained in full force. 
To this Dante replied, that when those who had been sent to 



-Serrazana were recalled, he was no longer in office ; and that 

St 

m- 

p l Of this remarkable man, see more in the Purg. xxir. 81. 
* See notes to Hell, x. oJ. and Purg. xi. 96. 



re s See Purg. xx. 69. 



LIFE OF DANTE. (xv) 

their return had been permitted on account of the death of 
Guido Cavalcanti, which was attributed to the unwholesome 
air of that place. The partiality which had been shown, how- 
ever, afforded a pretext to the Pope l for despatching Charles 
of Valois to Florence, by whose influence a great reverse was 
soon produced in the public affairs ; the ex-citizens being re- 
stored to their place, and the whole of the Bianca party driven 
into exile. At this juncture, Dante was not in Florence, but 
at Rome, whither he had a short time before been sent am- 
bassador to the Pope, with the offer of a voluntary return to 
peace and amity among the citizens. His enemies had now 
an opportunity of revenge, and, during his absence on this 
pacific mission, proceeded to pass an iniquitous decree of ban- 
ishment against him and Palmieri Altoviti ; and at the same 
time confiscated his possessions, which indeed had been pre- 
viously given up to pillage 2 . 

On hearing the tidings of his ruin, Dante instantly quitted 
Rome, and passed with all possible expedition to Sienna. 
Here being more fully apprized of the extent of the calamity, 
for which he could see no remedy, he came to the desperate 
resolution of joining himself to the other exiles. His first 
meeting with them was at a consultation which they had at 
Gorgonza, a small castle subject to the jurisdiction of Arezzo, 
in which city it was finally, after a long deliberation, resolved 
that they should take up their station 3 . Hither they accord- 

1 Boniface VIII. had before sent the Cardinal Matteo d'Aequasparta to 
Florence, with the view of supporting his own adherents in that city. The 
cardinal is supposed to be alluded to in the Paradise, xii. 115. 

2 On the 27th of January, 1302, he was mulcted 8000 lire, and condemned 
to two years' banishment ; and in case the fine was not paid, his goods were 
to be confiscated. On the 16th of March, the same year, he was sentenced 
to a punishment due only to the most desperate of malefactors. The decree, 
that Dante and his associates in exile should be burned, if they fell into the 
hands of their enemies, was first discovered in 1772, by the Conte Lodovic© 
Savioli. See Tiraboschi, where the document is given at length. 

3 At Arezzo it was his fortune, in 1302, to meet with Busone da Gubbia, 
who two years before had been expelled from his country as a Ghibelline, 
in about the twentieth year of his age. Busone, himself a cultivator of the 
Italian poetry, here contracted a friendship with Dante, which was after- 
wards cemented by the reception afforded him under Busone's roof during 
a part of his exile. He was of the ancient and noble family of the Rafaelli 
of Gubbio ; and to his banishment owed the honourable offices which he held 
of governor of Arezzo in 1316 and 1317 ; of governor of Viterbo in the latter 
of these years ; then of captain of Pisa ; of deputy to the Emperor in 1327 : 
and finally of Roman senator in 1337. He died probably about 1350. The 



(xvi) LIFE OF DANTE. 

ingly repaired in a numerous body, made the Count Alessan- 
dro da Romena their leader, and appointed a council of twelve, 
of which number Dante was one. In the year 1304, having 
been joined by a very strong force, which was not only fur- 
nished them by Arezzo, but sent from Bologna and Pistoia, 
they made a sudden attack on the city of Florence, gained 
possession of one of the gates, and conquered part of the terri- 
tory, but were finally compelled to retreat without retaining 
any of the advantages they had acquired. 

Disappointed in this attempt to reinstate himself in his 
country, Dante quitted Arezzo ; and his course is l , for the 
most part, afterwards to be traced only by notices, casually 
dropped in his own writings, or discovered in documents, 
which either chance or the zeal of antiquaries may have 
brought to light. From an instrument 2 in the possession of 

historian of Italian literature speaks slightly of his poetical productions, con- 
sisting chiefly of comments on the Divina Commedia, which were written in 
terza rima. They hare been published by Sig. Francesco Maria Rafaelli, 
who has collected all the information that could be obtained respecting 
them. Delicice Eruditor. v. xvii. He wrote also a romance, entitled L'Av- 
venturoso Ciciliano, which has never been printed. Tirdboschi, Stor. delta 
Poes. Ital. v. ii. p. 56. In Allacci's Collection, Ediz. Napoli, 1661, p. 112, 
is a sonnet by Busone, on the death of a lady and of Dante, which concludes, 
Ma i mi conforto ch' io credo che Deo 
Dante abbia posto in glorioso scanno. 

At the end of the Divina Commedia, in No. 3581 of the Harleian MSS. 
in the British Museum, are four poems. The first, beginning, 

O voi che siete nel verace lume, 
is attributed, as usual, to Jacopo Dante. The second, which begins, 
Acio che sia piu frutto e piu diletto 
A quei che si dilettan di sapere 
Dell' alta comedia vero intelletto, 
and proceeds with a brief explanation of the principal parts of the poem, is 
here attributed to Messer Busone d' Agobbio. It is also inserted in N os. 3459 
and 3460 of the same MSS. ; and I have had occasion to refer to it in the 
notes to Purg. xxix. 140. The third is a sonnet by Cino da. Pistoia to Bu- 
sone ; and the fourth, Busone's answer. Since this note was written, Bu- 
sone's Romance, above mentioned, has been edited at Florence in the year 
1832, by the late Doctor Nott. 

1 A late writer has attempted a recital of his wanderings. For this pur- 
pose, he assigns certain arbitrary dates to the completion of the several parts 
of the Divina Commedia ; and selecting from each what he supposes to be 
reminiscences of particular places visited by Dante, together with allusions 
to events then passing, contrives, by the help of some questionable docu- 
ments, to weave out of the whole a continued narrative, which, though it 
may pass for current with the unwary reader, will not satisfy a more dili- 
gent inquirer after the truth. See Troya's Yeltro Allegorico di Dante. 
Florence, 1826. 

* Millesimo trecentesimo sexto, die vigesimo septimo mensis Augusti, 



LIFE OF DANTE. (xvii) 

tlie Marchesi Papafavi, of Padua, it has been ascertained that, 
in 1306, he was at that city and with that family. Similar 
proof l exists of his having been present in the following year 
at a congress of the Ghibellines and the Bianchi, held in the 
sacristy of the church belonging to the abbey of S. Gauden- 
zio in Mugello ; and from a passage in the Purgatory 2 we 
collect, that before the expiration of 1307 he had found a re- 
fuge in Lunigiana, with the Marchese Morello or Marcello 
Malaspina, who, though formerly a supporter 3 of the opposite 
party, was now magnanimous enough to welcome a noble 
enemy in his misfortune. 

The time at which he sought an asylum at Verona, under 
the hospitable roof of the Signori della Scala, is less distinctly 
marked. It would seem as if those verses in the Paradise, 
where the shade of his ancestor declares to him, 

Lo primo tuo rifugio e'l primo ostello 

Sara la cortesia del gran Lombardo, 

First 4 refuge thou must find, first place of rest, 

In the great Lombard's courtesy, 

should not be interpreted too strictly : but whether he expe- 
rienced that courtesy at a very early period of his banishment, 
or, as others have imagined, not till 1308, when he had quit- 
ted the Marchese Morello, it is believed that he left Verona in 
disgust at the flippant levity of that court, or at some slight 
which he conceived to have been shown him by his muni- 
ficent patron Can Grande, on whose liberality he has passed 
so high an encomium 5 . Supposing the, latter to have been 
the cause of his departure, it must necessarily be placed at a 
date posterior to 1308; for Can Grande, though associated 
with his amiable brother Alboino 6 in the government of Ve- 

Padue in contrata Sancti Martini in domo Doniine Amate Domini Papafave, 
pra?sentibus Dantino quondam Alligerii de Florentia et nunc stat Padue in 
contrata Sancti Laurentii, &c. Pelli, p. 83. 

1 Pelli, p. 85, where the document is given. 

2 Canto yiii. 133. 

3 Hell, xxiv. 144. Morello's vrife Alagia is honourably mentioned in the 
Purg. xix. 140. 

4 Canto xvii. 68. 

5 Hell, i. 98, and Par. xvii. 75. A Latin Epistle dedicatory of the Para- 
dise to Can Grande is attributed to Dante. Without better proof than has 
been yet adduced, I cannot conclude it to be genuine. See the question 
discussed by Fraticelli, in the Opere Minori di Dante, torn. iii. p te ii. 12°. 
Fir. 1841. . 

6 Alboino is spoken of in the Convito, p. 179, in such a manner, that it is 

b 









(xviii) LIFE OF DANTE. 

rona, was then only seventeen years of age, and therefore in- 
capable of giving the alleged offence to his guest. 

The mortifications, which he underwent during these wan- 
derings, will be best described in his own language. In his 
Convito he speaks of his banishment, and the poverty and 
distress which attended it, in very affecting terms. "Alas 1 ," 
said he, " had it pleased the Dispenser of the Universe, that 
the occasion of this excuse had never existed ; that neither 
others had committed wrong against me, nor I suffered un- 
justly ; suffered, I say, the punishment of exile and poverty ; 
since it was the pleasure of the citizens of that fairest and most 
renowned daughter of Rome, Florence, to cast me forth out of 
her sweet bosom, in which I had my birth and nourishment 
even to the ripeness of my age ; and in which, with her good 
will, I desire, with all my heart, to rest this wearied spirit of 
mine, and to terminate the time allotted to me on earth. 
Wandering over almost every part, to which this our language 
extends, I have gone about like a mendicant ; showing, 
against my will, the wound with which fortune has smitten 
me, and which is often imputed to his ill-deserving, on whom it 
is inflicted. I have, indeed, been a vessel without sail and with- 
out steerage, carried about to divers ports, and roads, and shores, 
by the dry wind that springs out of sad poverty ; and have ap- 
peared before the eyes of many, who, perhaps, from some re- 
port that had reached them, had imagined me of a different 
form ; in whose sight not only my person was disparaged, but 
every action of mine became of less value, as well already 
performed, as those which yet remained for me to attempt." 
It is no wonder that, with feelings like these, he was now 
willing to obtain by humiliation and entreaty, what he had be- 
fore been unable to effect by force. 

He addressed several supplicatory epistles, not only to in- 
dividuals who composed the government, but to the people at 
large ; particularly one letter, of considerable length, which 
Leonardo Aretino relates to have begun with this expostula- 
tion: "Popule mi, quid feci tibi?" 

While he anxiously waited the result of these endeavours 
to obtain his pardon, a different complexion was given to the 

not easy to say whether a compliment or a reflection is intended ; but I am 
inclined to think the latter. 

1 " Ahi piacciuto fosse al Dispensatore dell' Universo," &c. p. 11. 



LIFE OF DANTE. (xix) 

face of public affairs by the exaltation of Henry of Luxem- 
burgh l to the imperial throne ; and it was generally expected 
that the most important political changes would follow, on the 
arrival of the new sovereign in Italy. Another prospect, 
more suitable to the temper of Dante, now disclosed itself to 
his hopes : he once more assumed a lofty tone of defiance ; 
and, as it should seem, without much regard either to con- 
sistency or prudence, broke out into bitter invectives against 
the rulers of Florence, threatening them with merited venge- 
ance from the power of the Emperor, which he declared that 
they had no adequate means of opposing. He now decidedly 
relinquished the party of the Guelphs, which had been 
espoused by his ancestors, and under whose banners he had 
served in the earlier part of his life on the plains of Campal- 
dino ; and attached himself to the cause of their opponents, 
the Ghibellines. Reverence for his country, says one of his 
biographers 2 , prevailed on him to absent himself from the 
hostile army, when Henry of Luxemburgh encamped before 
the gates of Florence ; but it is difficult to give him credit for 
being now much influenced by a principle which had not 
formerly been sufficient to restrain him from similar violence. 
It is probable that he was actuated by some desire, however 
weak, of preserving appearances ; for of his personal courage 
no question can be made. Dante was fated to disappointment. 
The Emperor's campaign ended in nothing ; the Emperor him- 
self died the following summer (in 1313), at Buonconvento ; 
and, with him, all hopes of regaining his native city expired 
in the breast of the unhappy exile. Several of his biogra- 
phers 3 affirm that he now made a second journey to Paris, 
where Boccaccio adds that he held a public disputation 4 on 
various questions of theology. To what other places 5 he 

1 Par. xvii. 80, and xxx. 141. 

2 Leonardo Aretino. 

3 BenTenuto da Iniola, Filippo Yillani, and Boccaccio. 

4 Another public philosophical disputation at Verona, in 1320, published 
at Venice in 1508, seems to be regarded by Tiraboschi with some suspicion 
of its authenticity. It is entitled, " Quaestio florulenta et perutilis de duobus 
elementis aqua? et terras tractans, nuper reperta, qua? olim Mantua? auspicata, 
Veronae yero disputata et decisa, ac manu propria scripta a Dante Florentino 
Poeta clarissimo, qua? diligenter et accurate correcta fuit per Rev. Magis- 
trum Joan. Benedictum Moncettum de Castilione Aretino] Regentem Pa- 
tavinum Orclinis Eremitarum Diyi Augustini, sacraeque Theologiae Doctoreni 
e x c ellentissinium . " 

5 Vellutello says that he was also in Germany. Vita del Poeta. 

b 2 



(xx) LIFE OF DANTE 

might have roamed during his banishment, is very uncertain. 
We are told that he was in Casentino, with the Conte Guido 
Salvatico 1 , at one time; and, at another, in the mountains 
near Urhino, with the Signori della Faggiola. At the mon- 
astery of Santa Croce di Fonte Avellana, a wild and solitary 
retreat in the territory of Gubbio, was shown a chamber, in 
which, as a Latin inscription 2 declared, it was believed that 
he had composed no small portion of his divine work. A 
tower 3 , belonging to the Conti Falcucci, in Gubbio, claims for 
itself a similar honour. In the castle of Colmollaro, near the 
river Saonda, and about six miles from the same city, he was 
courteously entertained by Busone da Gubbio 4 , whom he had 

1 He was grandson to the valiant Guido!?uerra. Petti, p. 95. See H. 
xri. 33. 

2 Hocee ciibiciihini hospes 

In quo Dantes Aligherius habitasse 
In eoqne non niinininni praeclari ac 

Pene diyini operis partem com- 

posuisse dicitur undique fatiscens 

Ac tantum non solo aequatuni 

Philippus Rodulphius 

Lanrentii Xicolai Carclinalis 

Amplissinii Fratris Filius sunimus 

Collegii Praeses pro exirnia erga 

Civem suum pietate refici hancque 

Illins effigiem ad tanti viii nienio- 

riam reTocandam Antonio Petreio 

Canon. Floren. procurante 

Collocari mandavit 

Kal. Maii. M.D.L.YII. Pelli, p. 98. 

3 In this is inscribed, 

Hie mansit Dantes 

Aleghierins Poeta 

Et carmina scripsit. Pelli, p. 97. 

4 The following sonnet, said to be addressed to him by Dante, was pub- 
lished in the Dehtiae Eraditorum, and is inserted in the Zatta edition of our 
Poet's "Works, torn. iv. part. ii. p. 264, in which alone I have seen it. 

Tu, che stampi lo colle ombroso e fresco, 

Ch' e co lo Fiume, che non e torrente, 

Linci molle lo chiama quel la gente 

In nonie Itahano e non Tedesco : 
Ponti, sera e mattin, contento al desco, 

Perche del car fighuol Tedi presente 

El frutto che sperassi, e si repente 

S' araccia nello stil Greco e Francesco. , 
Perche cima d'ingegno non s'astalla 

In quella Itaha di dolor ostello, 

Di cui si speri gia cotanto frutto ; 
Gavazzi pur el primo Raffaello, 

Che tra dotti yedi'allo esser yeduto, 

Come sopr' acqua si sostien la galla. 



LIFE OF DANTE. (xxi) 

formerly met at Arezzo. There are some traces of his having 
made a temporary abode at Udine, and particularly of his 
having been in the Friuli with Pagano della Torre, the patri- 
arch of Aquileia, at the castle of Tolniino, where he is also 
said to have employed himself on the Divina Commedia, and 
where a rock was pointed out that was called the seat of 
Dante 1 . ^What is known with greater certainty is, that he at 
last found a refuge at Ravenna, with Guido Novello da Po- 
lenta 2 ; a splendid protector of learning ; himself a poet ; and 
the kinsman of that unfortunate Francesca 3 , whose story has 
been told by Dante with such unrivaled pathos. 

It would appear from one of his Epistles that about the 
year 1316 he had the option given him of returning to Flo- 
rence, on the ignominious terms of paying a fine, and of making 

Translation. 
Thou, who where Linci sends his stream to drench 

The valley, walk'st that fresh and shady hill 

(Soft Linci well they call the gentle rill, 

Nor smooth Italian name to German wrench) 
Evening and morning, seat thee on thy bench, 

Content ; beholding fruit of knowledge fill 

So early thy son's branches, that grow still 

Enrich' d with dews of Grecian lore and French. 
Though genius, with like hopeful fruitage hung, 

Spread not aloft in recreant Italy, 

Where grief her home, and worth has made his grave ; 
Yet may the elder Raffaello see, 

With joy, his offspring seen the learn' d among, 

Like buoyant thing that floats above the wave. 

1 The considerations which induced the Cavalier Yannetti to conclude 
that a part of the Commedia, and the Canzone beginning 

Canzon, da che convien pur, ch' io mi doglia, 
were written in the valley Lagarina, in the territory of Trento, do not ap- 
pear entitled to much notice. Yannetti's letter is in the Zatta edition of 
Dante, torn. iv. part ii. p. 143. There may be better ground for concluding 
that he was, sometime during his exile, with Lanteri Paratico, a man of an- 
cient and noble family, at the castle of Paratico, near Brescia, and that he 
there employed himself on his poems. The proof of this rests upon a com- 
munication made by the Abate Rodella to Dionisi, of an extract from a 
chronicle remaining at Brescia. See Cancellieri. Osservazioni intomo alia 
questione sopra l'originalita della Divina Commedia, &c. Roma, 1814, p. 125. 

2 See Hell, xxvii. 38. 

3 Hell, v. 113, and note. Former biographers of Dante have represented 
Guido, his last patron, as the father of Francesca. Troya asserts that he 
was her nephew. See his Yeltro Allegorico di Dante. Ed. Florence, 1826, 
p. 176. It is to be regretted that, in this instance, as in others, he gives no 
authority for his assertion. He is however followed by Balbo, Yita di Dante, 
Torino, 1839, v. ii. p. 315; and Artaud, Histoire de Dante, Paris, 1841, 
p. 470. 



(xxii) LIFE OF DANTE. 

a public avowal of his offence. It may. perhaps, be in refer- 
ence to this offer, which, for the same reason that Socrates 
refused to save his life on similar conditions; he indignantly 

rejected, that he promises himself he shall one day return ;i in 
other guise," 

and standing up 
At his baptismal font, shall claim the -wreath ^ 

Due to the poet's temples. Purg. xx^ 

Such, indeed, was the glory which his compositions in his na- 
tive tongue had now gained him, that he declares, in the trea- 
tise De Vulgari Eloquentia 1 , it had in some measure recon- 
ciled him even to his banishment. 

In the service of his last patron, in whom he seems to have 
met with a more congenial mind than in any of the former, 
his talents were gratefully exerted, and his affections interested 
but too deeply ; for having been sent by Guido on an embassy 
to the Venetians, and not being able even to obtain an audi- 
ence, on account of the rancorous animosity with which they 
regarded that prince, Dante returned to Ravenna so over- 
whelmed with disappointment and grief, that he was seized 
by an illness which terminated fatally, either in July or Sep- 
tember 1321 2 . Guido testified his sorrow and respect by the 
sumptuousness of his obsequies, and by his intention to erect 
a monument, which he did not live to complete. His coun- 
trymen showed, too late, that they knew the value of what 
thev had lost. At the beginning of the next centurv, their 
posterity marked their regret by entreating that the mortal 
remains of their illustrious citizen might be restored to them. 
and deposited among the tombs of their fathers. But the peo- 
ple of Ravenna were unwilling to part with the sad and hon- 
ourable memorial of their own hospitality. No better success 
attended the subsequent negociations of the Florentines for the 
same purpose, though renewed under the auspices of Leo X., and 
conducted through the powerful mediation of Michael Angelo 3 . 

1 Quantum vera suos famihares gloriosos effieiat, nos ipsi novimus. qui 
liujus dulcedine gloria 3 nostrum exiiium postergamus. Lib. i. cap. 17. 

- Filippo Yillani ; Domenieo di Bandino d'Arezzo : and Giov. Villain, 
Hist. lib. ix. cap. exxxv. The last writer, whose authority is perhaps the best 
on this point, in the Giunti edition of 1-559. mentions July as the month in 
which he died ; but there is a MS. of Yillani's history, it is said, in the 
library of St. Mark, at Venice, in which his death is placed in September. 

3 Pelli, p. 104. 



LIFE OF DANTE. (xxiii) 

The sepulchre, designed and commenced by Guido da Po- 
lenta, was, in 1483, erected by Bernardo Bembo, the father 
of the Cardinal ; and, by him, decorated, besides other orna- 
ments, with an effigy of the Poet in bas-relief, the sculpture 
of Pietro Lombardo, and with the following epitaph : 

Exigua tumuli, Danthes, hie sorte jacebas, 

Squalenti nulli cognite pene situ. 
At nunc marmoreo subnixus conderis arcu, 

Omnibus et cultu splendidiore nites. 
Nimirum Bembus Musis incensus Etruscis 

Hoc tibi, quern imprimis hoe coluere, dedit. 

A yet more magnificent memorial was raised so lately as the 
year 1780, by the Cardinal Gonzaga 1 . 

His children consisted of one daughter and five sons, two 
of whom, Pietro 2 and Jacopo 3 , inherited some portion of their 

1 Tiraboschi. 

In the Literary Journal, Feb. 16, 1804, p. 192, is the following article : — 
" A subscription has v been opened at Florence for erecting a monument in 
the cathedral there, to the memory of the great poet Dante. A drawing of 
this monimient has been submitted to the Florentine Academy of the Fine 
Arts, and has met with universal approbation." A monument, executed by 
Stefano Ricci of Arezzo, has since been erected to him in the Santa Croce at 
Florence, which I had the gratification of seeing in the year 1833. 

2 Pietro was also a poet. His commentary on the Divina Commedia, 
which is in Latin, has never been published. Lionardo, the grandson of 
Pietro, came to Florence, with other young men of Verona, in the time of 
Leonardo Aretino, who tells us, that he showed him there the house of Dante 
and of his ancestors. Vita di Dante. To Pietro, the son of Lionardo, Mario 
Filelfo addressed his Life of our Poet. The son of this Pietro, Dante III., 
was a man of letters, and an elegant poet. Some of his works are preserved 
in collections : he is commended by Valerianus de Infelicitate Literat. lib. 1, 
and is, no doubt, the same whom Landino speaks of as living in his time at 
Ravenna, and calls " uomo molto literato ed eloquente e degno di tal sangue, 
e quale meritamente si dovrebbe rivocar nella sua antica patria e nostra re- 
publica." In 1495, the Florentines took Landino' s advice, and invited him 
back to the city, offering to restore all they could of the property that had 
belonged to his ancestors ; but he would not quit Verona, where he was 
established in much opulence. J'ellutello, Vita. He afterwards experienced 
a sad reverse of fortune. He had three sons, one of whom, Francesco, made 
a translation of Vitruvius, which is supposed to have perished. A better 
fate has befallen an elegant dialogue written by him, which was published, 
not many years ago, in the Anecdota Literaria, edit. Roma (no date), vol. ii. 
p. 207. It is entitled Francisci Aligerii Dantis III. Filii Dialogus Alter de 
Antiquitatibus Valentinis ex Cod. IMS. Menibranaceo. Ssec. xvi. nunc primum 
in lucem editus. Pietro, another son of Dante III., who was also a scholar, 
and held the office of Proveditore of Verona in 1539, was the father of 
Ginevra, mentioned above in the note to p. x. See Pelli, p. 28, &c. Vellu- 
tello, in his Life of the Poet, acknowledges his obligations to this last Pietro 
for the information he had given him. 

3 Jacopo is mentioned by Bembo among the Rimatori, lib. ii. della Volg. 
Ling, at the beginning ; and some of his verses are preserved in MS. in the 



(xxiy) LIFE OF DANTE. 

father's abilities, which they employed chiefly in the pious 
task of illustrating his Diyina Commedia. The former of 
these possessed acquirements of a more profitable kind ; and 
obtained considerable wealth at Verona, where he was settled, 
by the exercise of the legal profession. He was honoured 
with the friendship of Petrarch, by whom some verses were 
addressed to him 1 at Treyigi, in 1361. 

His daughter Beatrice 2 (whom he is said to haye named 
after the daughter of Folco Portinari) became a nun in the 
conyent of S. Stefano deir Uliya, at Ravenna ; and, among 
the entries of expenditure by the Florentine Republic, appears 
a present of ten golden florens sent to her in 1350, by the 
hands of Boccaccio, from the state. The imagination can 
picture to itself few objects more interesting, than the daugh- 
ter of Dante, dedicated to the service of religion in the city 
where her father's ashes were deposited, and receiving from 
his countrymen this tardy tribute of their reyerence for his 
diyine genius, and her own virtues. 

It is but justice to the wife of Dante not to omit what Boc- 
caccio 3 relates of her; that after the banishment of her hus- 
band she secured some share of his property from the popular 
fury, under the name of her dowry ; that out of this she con- 
trived to support their little family with exemplary discretion ; 
and that she even removed from them the pressure of poverty, 
by such industrious efforts as in her former affluence she had 
never been called on to exert. TVho does not regret, that 
with qualities so estimable, she wanted the sweetness of tem- 
per necessary for riveting the affections of her husband ? 

Dante was a man of middle stature and grave deportment ; 
of a visage rather long ; large eyes ; an aquiline nose ; dark 
complexion ; large and prominent cheek-bones ; black curling 
hair and beard; the under lip projecting beyond the upper. 
He mentions, in the Convito, that his sight had been tran- 
siently impaired by intense application to books 4 . In his 

Vatican, and at Florence. He was living in 1342, and had children, of 
whom little is known. The names of our Poet's other sons were Gabriello, 
Aligero, and Eliseo. The last two died in their childhood. Of Gabriello, 
nothing certain is known. 

1 Carni. lib. hi. ep. vii. 

2 Pelli, p. 33. 

3 Vita di Dante, p. 57, ed. Firenze, 1576. 

4 " Per affaticare lo viso molto a studio di leggere, intanto debilitai gli 



LIFE OF DANTE. (xxv) 

<!ress, he studied as much plainness as was suitable with his 
rank and station in life ; and observed a strict temperance in 
his diet. He was at times extremely absent and abstracted ; 
and appears to have indulged too much a disposition to sar- 
casm. At the table of Can Grande, when the company was 
amused by the conversation and tricks of a buffoon, he was 
asked by his patron, why Can Grande himself, and the guests 
who were 1 ' present, failed of receiving as much pleasure from 
the exertion of his talents, as this man had been able to give 
them. " Because all creatures delight in their own resem- 
blance," was the reply of Dante 1 . In other respects, his 
manners are said to have been dignified and polite. He was 
particularly careful not to make any approaches to flattery, a 
vice which he justly held in the utmost abhorrence. He spoke 
seldom, and in a slow voice ; but what he said derived author- 
ity from the subtileness of his observations, somewhat like 
his own poetical heroes, who 

P aria van rado con voci soavi. 
spake 



Seldom, but all their words were tuneful sweet. 

Hell, iv. 

He was connected in habits of intimacy and friendship with 
the most ingenious men of his time ; with Guido Cavalcanti 2 ; 
with Buonaggiunta da Lucca 3 ; with Forese Donati 4 ; with 
Cino da Pistoia 5 ; with Giotto 6 , the celebrated painter, by whose 

spiriti visivi, che le stelle mi pareano tutte d'alcuno albore ombrate : e per 
lunga riposanza in luoghi scuri, e freddi, e con affreddare lo corpo dell' oc- 
chio con acqua pura, rivinsi la virtu disgregata, che tornai nel prima buono 
stato della vista." Convito, p. 108. 

1 There is here a point of resemblance (nor is it the only one) in the cha- 
racter of Milton. " I had rather," says the author of Paradise Lost, " since 
the life of man is likened to a scene, that all my entrances and exits might 
mix with such persons only, whose worth erects them and their actions to a 
grave and tragic deportment, and not to have to do with clowns and vices." 
Colasterion, Prose Works, vol. i. p. 339. Edit. London, 1753. 

2 See Hell, x. and notes. 

3 See Purg. xxiv. Yet Tiraboschi observes, that though it is not impro- 
bable that Buonaggiunta was the contemporary and friend of Dante, it can- 
not be considered as certain. Stor. della Poes. Ital. torn. i. p. 109, Mr. 
Mathias's Edit. 

4 See Purg. xxiii. 44. 

5 Guittorino de' Sigibuldi, commonly called Cino da Pistoia, (besides the 
passage that will be cited in a following note from the De Vulg. Eloq.,) is 
again spoken of in the same treatise, Kb. i. c. 17, as a great master of the 
vernacular diction in his Canzoni, and classed with our Poet himself, who is 



(xxvi) LIFE OF DANTE. 

hand his likeness ! was preserved ; with Oderigi da Gubbio 2 , the 
illuminator ; and with an eminent musician 3 — 
his Casella, whom he wooed to sing, 



Met in the milder shades of Purgatory. Milton 's Sonnets. 

Besides these, his acquaintance extended to some others, whose 
names illustrate the first dawn of Italian literature. Lapo 4 

termed " Amiens ejus ;" and likewise in lib. ii. c."2, where he is said to have 
written of " Love." His verses are cited too in other chapters. He ad- 
dressed and received sonnets from Dante ; and wrote a sonnet, or canzone, on 
Dante's death, which is preserved in the library of St. Mark, at Venice. 
Tiraboschi, della Poes. Ital. v. i. p. 116, and v. ii.'p. 60. The same honour 
was done to the inemoryof Cino by Petrarch, son. 71, part. i. " Celebrated 
both as a lawyer_and a poet, he is better known by the writings which he 
has left in the latter of these characters," insomuch that Tiraboschi has ob- 
served, that amongst those who preceded Petrarch, there is, perhaps, none 
who can be compared to him in elegance and sweetness. " There are many 
editions of his poems, the most copious being that published at Venice in 
1589, by P. Faustino Tasso ; in which, however, the Padre degli Agostini, 
not without reason, suspects that the second book is by later hands." Tira- 
boschi, ibid. There has been an edition by Seb. Ciampi, at Pisa, in 1813, 
&c. ; but see the remarks on it in Gamba's Testi di Lingua Ital. 294. He 
was interred at Pistoia, with this epitaph: " Cino eximio Juris interpreti 
Bartolique praeceptori dignissimo populus Pistoriensis Chi suo B. M. fecit. 
Obiit anno 1336." Guidi Panziroli de Claris Legum Interpretibus , lib. ii. 
cap. xxix. Lips. 4to. 1721. A Latin letter supposed to be addressed by 
Dante to Cino was published for the first time from a MS. in the Laurentian 
library, by M. Witte. 
6 See Purg. xi. 

1 Mr. Eastlake, in a note to Kuglefs Hand-Booh of Painting, translated 
by a Lady, Lond. 1842, p. 50, describes the discovery and restoration, in 
July 1840, of Dante's portrait by Giotto in the chapel of the Podesta at 
Florence, where it had been covered with whitewash or plaster. But it 
could scarcely have been concealed so soon as our distinguished artist sup- 
X>oses, since Landino speaks of it as remaining in his time, and Vasari says it 
was still to be seen when he wrote. 

2 See Purg. xi. 

3 Ibid. Canto ii. 

4 Lapo is said to have been the son of Farinata degli Uberti, (see Hell, x. 
32, and Tiraboschi della Poes. Ital. v. i. p. 116,) and the father of Fazio degli 
Uberti, author of the Dittamondo, a poem, which is thought, in the energy 
of its style, to make some approaches to the Divina Commedia, (Ibid. v. ii. 
p. 63,) though Monti passes on it a much less favourable sentence (see his 
Proposta, v. iii. p te 2. p. ccx. 8vo. 1824). He is probably the Lapo mentioned 
in the sonnet to Guido Cavalcanti, beginning, 

Guido vorrei die tu e Lapo ed io, 
which Mr. Hayley has so happily translated (see Hell, x. 62) ; and also in 
a passage that occurs in the De Vulg. Eloq. v. i. p. 116. " Quanquam fere 
omnes Tusci in suo turpiloquio sint obtusi, nonnullos Vulgaris excellentiam 
cognovisse sentimus, scilicet Guidonem Lapum, et unum alium, Florentinos, 
et Cinum Pistoriensem, quern nunc incligne postponimus, non indigne 
coacti." " Although almost all the Tuscans are marred by the baseness of 
their dialect, yet I perceive that some have known the excellence of the ver- 



LIFE GF DANTE. (xxvii) 

degli Uberti ; Dante da Majano 1 ; Cecco Angiolieri 2 ; Dino 
Frescobaldi 3 ; Giovanni di Virgilio 4 ; Giovanni Quirino 5 ; and 
Francesco Stabili 6 , who is better known by the appellation 
of Cecco d'Ascoli ; most of them either honestly declared their 
sense of his superiority, or betrayed it by their vain endeavours 
to detract from the estimation in which he was held. 

He is said to have attained some excellence in the art of 
designing ; which may easily be believed, when we consider 
that no poet has afforded more lessons to the statuary and the 
painter 7 , in the variety of objects which he represents, and in 

nacular tongue, namely Guido Lapo," (I suspect Dante here means his two 
friends Cavalcanti and Uberti, though, this has hitherto been taken for the 
name of one person,) " and one other, " (who is supposed to be the Author 
himself,) " Florentines ; and last, though not of least regard, Cino da 
Pistoia." 

1 Dante da Majano flourished about 1290. He was a Florentine, and com- 
posed many poems in praise of a Sicilian lady, who, being herself a poetess, 
was insensible neither to his yerses nor his love, so that she was called the 
Nina of Dante. Pelli, p. 60, and Tiraboschi, Storia clella Poes. Ital. y. i. p. 
137. There are seyeral of his sonnets addressed to our Poet, who declares, 
in his answer to one of them, that, although he knows not the name of its 
author, he discoyers in it the traces of a great mind. 

2 Of Cecco Angiolieri, Boccaccio relates a pleasant story in the Decameron, 
G. 9. N. 4. He liyed towards the end of the thirteenth century, and wrote 
several sonnets to Dante, which are in Allacci's collection. In some of 
them he wears the semblance of a friend ; but in one the mask drops, and 
shows that he was well disposed to be a rival. See Crescimbeni, Com. alia 
Storia di Yolg. Poes. v. ii. par. ii. lib. ii. p. 103 ; Pelli, p. 61. 

8 Dino, son of Lambertuccio Frescobaldi. Crescimbeni (ibid. lib. iii. p. 
120) assures us that he was not inferior to Cino da Pistoia. Pelli, p. 61. 
He is said to have been a friend of Dante's, in Avhose writings I have not 
observed any mention of him. Boccaccio, in his Life of Dante, calls Dino 
" in que' tempi famosissimo dicitore in rima in Firenze." 

4 Giovanni di Virgilio addressed two Latin eclogues to Dante, which were 
answered in similar compositions ; and is said to have been his friend and 
admirer. See Boccaccio, Vita di Dante ; and Pelli, p. 137. Dante's poeti- 
cal genius sometimes breaks through the rudeness of style in his two Latin 
eclogues. 

b Muratori had seen several sonnets, addressed to Giovanni Quirino by 
Dante, in a MS. preserved in the Ambrosian library. Delia Perfetta Poesia 
Ital. Ediz. Venezia, 1770, torn. i. lib. i. c. iii. p. 9. 

6 For the correction of many errors respecting this writer, see Tiraboschi, 
Stor. della Lett. Ital. torn. v. lib. ii. cap. ii. § 15, &c. He was burned in 
1317. In his Acerba, a poem in sesta rima, he has taken several occasions of 
venting his spleen against his great contemporary. 

7 Besides Filippo Brunelleschi, who, as Vasari tells us, diede molta opera 
alle cose di Dante, and Michael Angelo, whose Last Judgment is probably 
the mightiest effort of modern art, as the loss of his sketches on the margin 
of the Divina Commedia may be regarded as the severest loss the art has 
sustained ; besides these, Andrea Orgagna, Gio. Angelico di Fiesole, Luca 
Signorelli, Spinello Aretino, Giacomo da Pontormo, and Aurelio Lomi, have 



(xxviii) LIFE OF DANTE. 

the accuracy and spirit with which they are brought be:" 
the eye. Indeed, on one occasion l 3 he mentions that he was 
employed in delineating the figure of an angel, on the first 
anniversary of Beatrice's death. It is not unlikely that the 
seed of the Paradiso was thus cast into his mind; and that 
he was now endeavouring to express by the pencil an idea of 
celestial beatitude, which could only be conveyed in irs full 
perfection through the medium of song. 

As nothing that related to such a man was thought am 
thy of notice, one of his biographers 2 . who had :-: his hand- 
writing, has recorded that it was of a lon£ ar_ Icate 
character, and remarkable for neatness and accuracy. 

Dante wrote in Latin a Treatise de Monarchia, and two 
books de Yulgari Eloquio 3 . In the former, he defends the 
Imperial rights against the pretensions of the Pope, with argu- 
ments that are sometimes chimerical, and sometimes sound 
and conclusive. The latter, which he left unfinished, con- 
tains not only much information concerning the progress 
which the vernacular poetry of Italy had then made, but 
some reflections on the art itself, that prove him to have en- 
tertained large and philosophical principles respecting it. 

His Latin style, however, is generally rude and unclassi- 
cal. It is fortunate that he did not trust to it, 'as he once in- 
tended, for the work by which his name was to be perpetuated. 
In the use of his own language he was. beyond measure, 
more successful. The prose of his Vita Xuova and his Con- 
been recounted among the many artists who have worked on the same 
original. See Cancellieri, Osserrationi. 6:;. p. 75. To these we may justly 
pride ourselves in being able to add the names of Reynolds, Fuseli, and 
Flaxnian. The frescoes by Cornelius in the Villa Masshni at Rome, lately 
executed, entitle the Germans to a share in this distinction. 

1 M In quel giorno, nel quale si eoinpieva Tanno, che questa donna era fatta 
delle cittadine di vita eterna, io mi sedeva in parte, nella quale, ricordandomi 
di lei, io disegnava uno Angelo sopra certe tavolette, e nientre io il disegnava, 
Tolsi gli occhi. &c." Vita Xuova. p. 268. 

2 Leonardo Arctino. A specimen of it was believed to exist when Pelli 
wrote, about sixty years ago. and perhaps still exists in a MS. preserved in 
the archives at Gubbio, at the end of which was the sonnet to Busone, said 
to be in the hand- writing of Dante. Pelli, p. 51. 

3 These V^o were fLrst'published in an Italian translation, supposed to be 
Trissino's, and were not allowed to be genuine, till the Latin original was 
published at Paris in 1-577. Tiraboschi. A copy, written in the fourteenth 
century, is said to have been lately found in the public library at Grenoble. 
See Fratieelli's Opere niinori di Dante, 12°. Fir. 1&40, v. 3, p : * ii. p. xvi. A 
collation of this MS. is very desirable. 



LIFE OF DANTE. (xxix) 

vito, although ^ve centuries have intervened sinee its compo- 
sition, is probably, to an Italian eye, still devoid neither of 
freshness nor elegance. In the Vita Nuova, which he appears 
to have written about his twenty-eighth year, he gives an ac- 
count of his youthful attachment to Beatrice. It is, according 
to the taste of those times, somewhat mystical : yet there are 
some particulars in it, which have not at all the air of a fic- 
tion, such as the death of Beatrice's father, Folco Portinari ; 
her relation to the friend whom he esteemed next after Guido 
Cavalcanti ; his own attempt to conceal his passion, by a pre- 
tended attachment to another lady ; and the anguish he felt 
at the death of his mistress 1 . He tells us too, that at the 
time of her decease, he chanced to be composing a canzone in 
her praise, and that he was interrupted by that event at the 
conclusion of the first stanza ; a circumstance which we can 
scarcely suppose to have been a mere invention. 

Of the poetry, with which the Vita Nuova is plentifully 
interspersed, the two sonnets that follow may be taken as a 
specimen. Near the beginning he relates a marvellous vision, 
which appeared to him in sleep, soon after his mistress had for 
the first time addressed her speech to him ; and of this dream 
he thus asks for an interpretation : — 

To every heart that feels the gentle flame, 

To whom this present saying comes in sight, 
In that to me their thoughts they may indite, 
All health ! in Love, our lord and master's name. 

Now on its wiy the second quarter came 

Of those twelve hours, wherein the stars are bright, 
"When Love was seen before me, in such might, 
As to remember shakes with awe my frame. 

Suddenly came he, seeming glad, and keeping 
My heart in hand ; and in his arms he had 
My Lady in a folded garment sleeping : 

He waked her ; and that heart all burning bade 
Her feed upon, in lowly guise and sad : 
Then from my view he turned ; and parted, weeping. 

To this sonnet, Guido Cavalcanti, amongst others, returned 
an answer in a composition of the same form ; endeavouring 
to give a happy turn to the dream, by which the mind of the 
Poet had been so deeply impressed. From the intercourse 

1 Beatrice's marriage to Simone de' Bardi, which is collected from a clause 
in her father's- will dated January 15, 1287, would have been a fact too 
unsentimental to be introduced into the Vita Nuova, and is not, I believe, 
noticed by any of the early biographers. 



(xxx) LIFE OF DANTE. 

thus begun, when Dante was eighteen years of age, arose 
that friendship which terminated only with the death of 
Guido. 

The other sonnet is one that was written after the death 
of Beatrice : — 

Ah pilgrims ! ye that, haply musing, go, 

On aught save that which on your road ye meet, 
From land so distant, tell me, I intreat, 
Come ye, as by your mien and looks ye show ? 

Why mourn ye not, as through these gates of woe 
Ye wend along our city's midmost street, 
Even like those who nothing seem to weet 
What chance hath fall'n, why she is grieving so ? 

If ye to listen but a while would stay, 

Well knows this heart, which inly sigheth sore, 
That ye would then pass, weeping on your way. 

Oh hear : her Beatrice is no more ; 

And words there are a man of her might say, 
Would make a stranger's eye that loss deplore. 

In the Convito 1 , or Banquet, which did not follow till 
some time after his banishment, he explains very much at 
large the sense of three, out of fourteen, of his canzoni, the 
remainder of which he had intended to open in the same 
manner. " The viands at his Banquet," he tells his readers, 
quaintly enough, " will be set out in fourteen different man- 
ners ; that is, will consist of fourteen canzoni, the materials 
of which are love and virtue. Without the present bread, 
they would not be free from some shade of obscurity, so as to 
be prized by many less for their usefufcess than for their 
beauty ; but the bread will, in the form of the present expo- 
sition, be that light, which will bring forth all their colours, 
and display their true meaning to the view. And if the 
present work, which is named a Banquet, and I wish may 
prove so, be handled after a more manly guise than the Vita 
Nuova, I intend not, therefore, that the former should in any 
part derogate from the latter, but that the one should be a 
help to the other : seeing that it is fitting in reason for this to 
be fervid and impassioned ; that, temperate and manly. For 
it becomes us to act and speak otherwise at one age than at 

1 Perticari (Degli Scrittori del trecento, lib. ii. c. v.) speaking of the 
Convito, observes that Salviati himself has termed it the most ancient and 
principal of all excellent prose works in Italian. On the other hand, Balbo 
(Vita di Dante, v. ii. p. 86) pronounces it to be, on the whole, certainly the 
lowest among Dante's writings. In this difference of opinion, a foreigner 
may be permitted to judge for himself. 



LIFE OF DANTE. (xxxi) 

another ; since at one age, certain manners are suitable and 
praise-worthy, which, at another, become disproportionate and 
blaineable." He then apologizes for speaking of himself. " I 
fear the disgrace," says he, " of having been subject to so 
much passion, as one, reading these canzoni, may conceive me 
to have been ; a disgrace, that is removed by my speaking 
thus unreservedly of myself, which shows not passion, but 
virtue, to have been the moving cause. I intend, moreover, 
to set forth their true meaning, which some may not perceive, 
if I declare it not." He next proceeds to give many reasons 
why his commentary was not written rather in Latin than in 
Italian ; for which, if no excuse be now thought necessary, it 
must be recollected that the Italian language was then in its 
infancy, and scarce supposed to possess dignity enough for the 
purposes of instruction. " The Latin," he allows, " would 
have explained his canzoni better to foreigners, as to the 
Germans, the English, and others ; but then it must have 
expounded their sense, without the power of, at the same 
time, transferring their beauty : " and he soon after tells us, 
that many noble persons of both sexes were ignorant of the 
learned language. The best cause, however, which he assigns 
for this preference, was his natural love of his native tongue, 
and the desire he felt to exalt it above the Provencal, which 
by many was said to be the more beautiful and perfect lan- 
guage ; and against such of his countrymen as maintained so 
unpatriotic an opinion he inveighs with much warmth. 

In his exposition of the first canzone of the three, he tells 
the reader, that " the Lady, of whom he was enamoured after 
his first love, was the most beauteous and honourable daughter 
of the Emperor of the universe, to whom Pythagoras gave the 
name of Philosophy :",and he applies the same title to the ob- 
ject of his affections, when he is commenting on the other two. 

The purport of his third canzone, which is less mysterious, 
and, therefore, perhaps more likely to please than the others, 
is to show that " virtue only is true nobility." Towards the 
conclusion, after having spoken of virtue itself, much as Pindar 
would have spoken of it, as being " the gift of God only ;" 
Che solo Iddio all' anima la dona, 

he thus describes it as acting throughout the several stages of 
life. 

L' anima, cui adorna, &c. 



(xxxii) LIFE OF DANTE. 

The soul, that goodness like to this adorns, 

Holdeth it not conceal'd-, 

But, from her first espousal to the frame, 

Shows it, till death, reveal'd. 

Obedient, sweet, and full of seemly shame, 

She, in the primal age, 

The person decks with beauty ; moulding it 

Fitly through every part. 

In riper manhood, temperate, firm of heart, 

With love replenish' d, and with courteous praise . 

In loyal deeds alone she hath delight. 

And, in her elder days, 

For prudent and just largeness is she known ; 

Rejoicing with herself, 

That wisdom in her staid discourse be shown. 

Then, in life's fourth division, at the last 

She weds with God again, 

Contemplating the end she shall attain ; 

And looketh back ; and blesseth the time past. 

His lyric poems, indeed, generally stand much in need of a 
comment to explain them ; but the difficulty arises rather 
from the thoughts themselves, than from any imperfection of 
the language in which those thoughts are conveyed. Yet they 
abound not only in deep moral reflections, but in touches of 
tenderness and passion. 

Some, it has been already intimated, have supposed that 
Beatrice was only a creature of Dante's imagination ; and 
there can be no question but that he has invested her, in the 
Divina Commedia, with the attributes of an allegorical 1 g. 
But who can doubt of her having had a real existence, v> .ien 
she is spoken of in such a strain of passion as in these lines ? 

Quel ch' ella par, quando un poco sorride, 

Non si pud dicer ne tenere a mente, 

Si e nuoyo miracolo e gentile. Vita Xuova. 

Mira che quando ride 

Passa ben di dolcezza ogni altra cosa. Cam. xt. 

The canzone, from which the last couplet is taken, presents a 
portrait which might well supply a painter with a far more 
exalted idea of female beauty, than he could form to himself 
from the celebrated Ode of Anacreon on a similar subject. 
After a minute description of those parts of her form, which 
the garments of a modest woman would surfer to be seen, he 
raises the whole by the superaddition of a moral grace and dig- 
nity, such as the Christian religion alone could supply, and 
such as the pencil of Raphael afterwards aimed to represent. 



LIFE OF DANTE (xxxiii) 

Umile vergognosa e teinperata, 
E sempre a vertu grata, 
Intra suoi be' costunii un atto regna, 
Che d' ogrd riverenza la fa degna l . 

One or two of the sonnets prove that he could at times con- 
descend to sportiveness and pleasantry. The following to 
Brunetto, I should conjecture to have been sent with his Vita 
Nuova, which was written the year before Brunetto died. 

2 Master Brunetto, this I send, entreating 

Ye'll entertain this lass of mine at Easter ; 

She does not come among you as a feaster ; 

No : she has need of reading, not of eating. 
Nor let her find you at some merry meeting, 

Laughing amidst buffoons and drollers, lest her 

Wise sentence should escape a noisy jester : 

She must be wooed, and is well worth the weeting. 
If in this sort you fail to make her out, 

You have amongst you many sapient men, 

All famous as was Albert of Cologne. 
<I have been posed amid that learned rout. 

And if they cannot spell her right, why then 

Call Master Giano, and the deed is done. 

Another, though on a more serious subject, is yet remark- 
able for a fancifulness, such as that with which Chaucer, by a 
few spirited touches, often conveys to us images more striking 
than others have done by repeated and elaborate efforts of 
skill. 

Came Melancholy to my side one day, 

And said : " I must a little bide with thee : " 
And brought along with her in company 
Sorrow and Wrath. — Quoth I to her ; " Away : 

I will hare none of you : make no delay." 
And, like a Greek, she gave me stout reply. 
Then, as she talk'd, I look'd and did espy 
Where Love was coming onward on the way, 

A garment new of cloth of black he had, 
And on his head a hat of mourning wore ; 

1 I am aware that this canzone is not ascribed to Dante, in the collection 
of Sonetti e Canzoni printed by the Giunti in 1527. Monti, in his Proposta 
under the word " Induare," remarks that it is quite in the style of Fazio 
degli Uberti ; and adds, that a very rare MS. possessed by Perticari restores 
it to that writer. On the other hand, Missirini, in a late treatise " On the 
Love of Dante and on the Portrait of Beatrice," printed at Florence in 
1832, makes so little doubt of its being genuine, that he founds on it the 
chief argument to prove an old picture in his possession to be intended for a 
representation of Beatrice. See Fraticelli's Opere Minori di Dante, torn. i. 
p. cciii. 12°. Fir. 1834. 

8 Fraticelli (Ibid. p. cccii. ccciii.) questions the genuineness of this sonnet, 
and decides on the spuriousness of that which follows. I do not, in either 
instance, feel the justness of his reasons. 

C 



(xxxiv) LIFE OF DANTE. 

And he, of truth, unfeignecllv ^as crying. 
Forthwith I ask'd : " What ails thee, caitiff lad ? * 
And he rejoin' d : " Sad thought and anguish sore, 
Sweet brother mine ! our lady lies a-dying." 

For purity of diction, the Rime of our author are, I think, 
on the whole, preferred by Muratori to his Divina Commedia, 
though that also is allowed to be a model of the pure Tuscan 
idiom. To this singular production, which has not only stood 
the test of ages, but given a tone and colour to the poetry of 
modern Europe, and even animated the genius of Milton and 
of Michael Angelo, it would be difficult to assign its place ac- 
cording to the received rules of criticism. Some have termed 
it an epic poem ; and others, a satire : but it matters little by 
what name it is called. It suffices that the poem seizes on the 
heart by its two great holds, terror and pity ; detains the fancy 
by an accurate and lively delineation of the objects it repre- 
sents ; and displays throughout such an originality of concep- 
tion, as leaves to Homer and Shakspeare alone the power of 
challenging the pre-eminence or equality 1 . The fiction, it has 

1 Yet his pretensions to originality have not been wholly unquestioned. 
Dante, it has been supposed, was more immediately influenced in his choice 
of a subject by the Vision of Alberico, written in barbarous Latin prose 
about the beginning of the twelfth century. The incident which is said to 
haye given birth to this composition, is not a little marvellous. Alberico, 
the son of noble parents, and born at a castle in the neighbourhood of Alvito 
iu the diocese of Sora, in the year 1101 or soon after, when he had com- 
pleted his ninth year, was seized with a violent fit of illness, which deprived 
him of Ins senses for the space of nine days. During the continuance of this 
trance, he had a vision, in which he seemed to himself to be carried away by 
a dove, and conducted by St. Peter, in company with two angels, through 
Purgatory and Hell, to survey the torments of sinners ; the saint giving him 
information, as they proceeded, respecting what he saw : after which they 
were transported together through the seven heavens, and taken up into 
Paradise, to behold the glory of the blessed. As soon as he came to himself 
again, he was permitted to make profession of a religious life in the monastery 
of Monte Casino. As the account he gave of his vision was strangely altered 
iu the reports that went abroad of it, Girardo the abbot employed one of the 
monks to take down a relation of it, dictated by the mouth of Alberico him- 
self. Senioretto, who was chosen abbot in 1127, not contented with this 
narrative, although it seemed to have eveiy chance of being authentic, 
ordered Alberico to revise and correct it, which he accordingly did with the 
assistance of Pietro Diacono, who was his associate in the monastery, and a 
few years younger than himself; and whose testimony to his extreme and 
perpetual self-mortification, and to a certain abstractedness of demeanour, 
which showed him to converse with other thoughts than those of this life, 
is still on record. The time of Alberico' s death is not known ; but it is con- 
jectured that he reached to a good old age. His Vision, with a preface by 
the first editor Guido, and preceded by a letter from Alberico himself, is 
preserved in a MS. numbered 257 in the archives of the monastery, which 



LIFE OF DANTE. (xxxv) 

been remarked 1 , is admirable, and the work of an inventive 
talent truly great. It comprises a description of the heavens 
and heavenly bodies ; a description of men, their deserts and 
punishments, of supreme happiness and utter misery, and of 
the middle state between the two extremes : nor, perhaps, was 
there ever any one who chose a more ample and fertile sub- 
ject ; so as to afford scope for the expression of all his ideas, 
from the vast multitude of spirits that are introduced speaking 

contains the works of Pietro Diacono, and which was written between the 
years 1159 and 1181. The probability of onr Poet's having been indebted 
to it, was first remarked either by Giovanni Bottari in a letter inserted in 
the Deca di Simboli, and printed at Rome in 1753 ; or, as F. Cancellieri con- 
jectures, in the preceding year by Alessio Simmaco Mazzocchi. In 1801, 
extracts from Alberico's Vision were laid before the public in a quarto 
pamphlet, printed at Rome with the title of Lettera di Eustazio Dicearcheo 
ad Angelio Sidicino, under which appellations the writer, Giustino di 
Costanzo, concealed his own name and that of his friend Luigi Anton. Som- 
pano ; and the whole has since, in 1814, been edited in the same city by 
Francesco Cancellieri, who has added to the original an Italian translation. 
Such parts of it, as bear a marked resemblance to passages in the Divina Corn- 
media, will be found distributed in their .proper places throughout the fol- 
lowing notes. The reader will in these probably see enough to convince him 
that our author had read this singular work, although nothing to detract 
from his claim to originality. 

Long before the public notice had been directed to this supposed imitation, 
Malatesta Porta, in the Dialogue entitled Rossi, as referred to by Fontanini 
in his Eloquenza Italiana, had suggested the probability that Dante had 
taken his plan from an ancient romance, called Guerrino di Durazzo il 
Meschino. The above-mentioned Bottari, however, adduced reasons for 
concluding that this book was written originally in Provencal, and not 
translated into Italian till after the time of our Poet, by one Andrea di Bar- 
berino, who embellished it with many images, and particularly with similes, 
borrowed from the Divina Commedia. 

Mr. Warton, in one part of his History of English Poetry, (vol. i. s. xviii. 
p. 463,) has observed, that a poem, entitled Le Yoye on le Songe d'Enfer, 
was written by Raoul de Houdane, about the year 1180 ; and in another 
part (vol. ii. s. x. p. 219) he has attributed the origin of Dante's Poem to 
that " favourite apologue, the Somnium Scipionis of Cicero, which, in 
Chaucer's words, treats 

of heaven and hell 
And yearth and souls that therein dwell." 

Assembly of Foules. 

It is likely that a little research might discover many other sources, from 
which his invention might with an equal appearance of truth be derived. 
The method of conveying instruction or entertainment under the form of a 
vision, in which the living should be made to converse with the dead, was 
so obvious, that it would be, perhaps, difficult to mention any country in 
which it had not been employed. It is the scale of magnificence on which 
this conception was framed, and the wonderful developement of it in all its 
parts, that may justly entitle our Poet to rank among the few minds, to 
whom the power of a great creative faculty can be ascribed. 

1 Leonardo Aretino, Yita di Dante. 

c 2 



(xxxvi) LIFE OF DANTE. 

on sucli different topics ; who are of so many different coun- 
tries and ages, and under circumstances of fortune so striking 
and so diversified ; and who succeed, one to another, with such 
a rapidity as never suffers the attention for an instant to pall. 
His solicitude, it is true, to define all his images in such a 
manner as to bring them distinctly within the circle of our 
vision, and to subject them to the power of the pencil, some- 
times renders him little better than grotesque, where Milton has 
since taught us to expect sublimity. But his faults, in general, 
were less those of the poet, than of the age in which he lived. 
For his having adopted the popular creed in all its extrava- 
gance, we have no more right to blame him, than we should 
have to blame Homer because he made use of the heathen 
deities, or Shakspeare on account of his witches and fairies. 
The supposed influence of the stars, on the disposition of men 
at their nativity, was hardly separable from the distribution 
which he had made of the glorified spirits through the heaven- 
ly bodies, as the abodes of bliss suited to their several endow- 
ments. And whatever philosophers may think of the matter, 
it is certainly much better, for the ends of poetry at least, that 
too much should be believed, rather than less, or even no more 
than can be proved to be true. Of what he considered the 
cause of civil and religious liberty, he is on all occasions the 
zealous arid fearless advocate ; and of that higher freedom, 
which is seated in the will, he was an assertor equally strenu- 
ous and enlightened. The contemporary of Thomas Aquinas, 
it is not to be wondered if he has given his poem a tincture of 
the scholastic theology, which the writings of that extraordinary 
man had rendered so prevalent, and without which it could 
not perhaps have been made acceptable to the generality of 
his readers. The phraseology has been accused of being at 
times hard and uncouth ; but, if this is acknowledged, yet it 
must be remembered that he gave a permanent stamp and 
character to the language in which he wrote, and in which, 
before him, nothing great had been attempted ; that the diction 
is strictly vernacular, without any debasement of foreign idiom ; 
that his numbers have as much variety as the Italian tongue, 
at least in that kind of metre, could supply ; and that, although 
succeeding writers may have surpassed him in the lighter graces 
and embellishments of style, not one of them has equaled him 
in succinctness, vivacity, and strength. 



LIFE OF DANTE. (xxxvii) 

Never did any poem rise so suddenly into notice after the 
death of its author, or engage the public attention more 
powerfully, than the Divina Commedia. This cannot be at- 
tributed solely to its intrinsic excellence. The freedom with 
which the writer had treated the most distinguished characters 
of his time, gave it a further and stronger hold on the curiosity 
of the age : many saw in it their acquaintances, kinsmen, and 
friends, or, what scarcely touched them less nearly, their ene- 
mies, either consigned to infamy or recorded with honour, and 
represented in another world as tasting 

Of heaven's sweet cup, or poisonous drug of hell ; 

so that not a page could be opened without exciting the strong- 
est personal feelings in the mind of the reader. These sources 
of interest must certainly be taken into our account, when we 
consider the rapid diffusion of the work, and the unexampled 
pains that were taken to render it universally intelligible. 
Not only the profound and subtile allegory which pervaded it, 
the mysterious style of prophecy which the writer occasionally 
assumed, the bold and unusual metaphors which he every where 
employed, and the great variety of knowledge he displayed ; 
but his hasty allusions to passing events, and his description 
of persons by accidental circumstances, such as some peculiari- 
ty of form or feature, the place of their nativity or abode, 
some office they held, or the heraldic insignia they bore — all 
asked for the help of commentators and expounders, who were 
not long wanting to the task. Besides his two sons, to whom 
that labour most properly belonged, many others were found 
ready to engage in it. Before the century had expired, there 
appeared the commentaries of Accorso de' Bonfantini \ sl Fran- 
ciscan ; of Micchino da Mezzano, a canon of Ravenna ; of Fra. 
Riccardo, a Carmelite ; of Andrea, a Neapolitan ; of Guini- 
forte Bazzisio, a Bergamese ; of Fra. Paolo Albertino ; and of 
several writers whose names are unknown, and whose toils, 
when Pelli wrote, were concealed in the dust of private libra- 
ries 2 . About the year 1350, Giovanni Visconti, archbishop 
of Milan, selected six of the most learned men in Italy, two 

1 Tiraboschi, Stor. della Poes. Ital. vol. ii. p. 39 ; and Pelli, p. 119. 

2 The Lettera di Eustazio Dicearcheo, &c. mentioned above, p. xxxv., con- 
tains many extracts from an early MS. of the Divina Commedia, with marginal 
notes in Latin, preserved in the monastery of Monte Casino. To these 
extracts I shall have frequent occasion to refer. 



(xxxviii) LIFE OF DANTE. 

divines, two philosophers, and two Florentines ; and gave it 
them in charge to contribute their joint endeavours towards 
the compilation of an ample comment, a copy of which is pre- 
served in the Laurentian library at Florence. Who these 
were is no longer known ; but Jacopo della Lana l , and Pe- 
trarch, are conjectured to have been among the number. At 
Florence, a public lecture was founded for the purpose of ex- 
plaining a poem, that was at the same time the boast and the 
disgrace of the city. The decree for this institution was passed 
in 1373 ; and in that year Boccaccio, the first of their writers 
in prose, was appointed, with an annual salary of a hundred 
florens, to deliver lectures in one of the churches, on the first 
of their poets. On this occasion he wrote his comment, which 
extends only to a part of the Inferno, and has been printed. 
In 1375 Boccaccio died; and among his successors in this 
honourable employment we find the names of Antonio Piovano 
in 1381, and of Filippo Villain in 1401. 

The example of Florence was speedily followed by Bologna, 
by Pisa, by Piacenza, and by Venice. Benvenuto da Imola, 
on whom the office of lecturer devolved at Bologna, sustained 
it for the space of ten years. From the comment, which he 
composed for the purpose, and which he sent abroad in 1379, 
those passages, that tend to illustrate the history of Italy, have 
been published by Muratori 2 . At Pisa, the same charge was 
committed to Francesco da Buti about 1386. 

On the invention of printing, in the succeeding century, 
Dante was one of those writers who were first and most fre- 
quently given to the press. But I do not mean to enter on an 
account of the numerous editions of our author, which were 
then, or ha\*e since been published ; but shall content myself 
with adding such remarks as have occurred to me on reading 
the principal writers, by whose notes those editions have been 
accompanied. 

1 Pelli, p. 119, informs us, that the writer, who is termed sometimes " the 
good," sometimes the " old commentator," by those deputed to correct the 
Decameron, in the preface to their explanatory notes, and who began his work 
in 1334, is known to be Jacopo della Lana ; and that his commentary was 
translated into Latin by Alberigo da Rosada, Doctor of Laws at Bologna. 

2 Antiq. Ital. v. i. The Italian comment published under the name of 
Benyenuto da Imola, at Milan/ in 1473, and at Venice in 1477, is altogether 
different from that which Muratori has brought to light, and appears to be 
the same as the Italian comment of Jacopo della Lana before mentioned. 
See Tiraboschi. 



LIFE OF DANTE. (xxxix) 

Of the four chief commentators on Dante, namely Landino, 
Vellutello, Venturi, and Lombardi, the first appears to enter 
most thoroughly into the mind of the Poet. Within little 
more than a century of the time in which Dante had lived ; 
himself a Florentine, while Florence was still free, and still 
retained something of her ancient simplicity ; the associate of 
those great men who adorned the age of Lorenzo de' Medici ; 
Landino l was the most capable of -forming some estimate of 
the mighty stature of his compatriot, who was indeed greater 
than them all. His taste for the classics, which were then 
newly revived, and had become the principal objects of public 
curiosity, as it impaired his relish for what has not inaptly 
been termed the romantic literature, did not, it is true, im- 
prove him for a critic on the Divina Commedia. The adven- 
tures of King Arthur, by which 2 Dante had been delighted, 
appeared to Landino no better than a fabulous and inelegant 
book 3 . He is, besides, sometimes, unnecessarily prolix; at 
others, silent, where a real difficulty asks for solution ; and, 
now and then, a little visionary in his interpretation. The 
commentary of his successor, Vellutello 4 , is more evenly dif- 
fused over the text ; and although without pretensions to the 
higher qualities, by which Landino is distinguished, he is 
generally under the influence of a sober good sense, which 
renders him a steady and useful guide. Venturi 5 , who fol- 
lowed after a long interval of time, was too much swayed by 
his principles, or his prejudices, as a Jesuit, to suffer him to 
judge fairly of a Ghibelline poet ; and either this bias, or a 
real want of tact for the higher excellence of his author, or, 
perhaps, both these imperfections together, betray him into 
such impertinent and injudicious sallies, as dispose us to quar- 
rel with our companion, though, in the main, a very attentive 
one, generally acute and lively, and at times even not devoid 
of a better understanding for the merits of his master. To 
him, and in our own times, has succeeded the Padre Lom- 



1 Cristofforo Landino was born in 1424, and died in 1504 or 1508. See 
Bandini, Specimen Litterat. Florent. Edit. Florence, 1751. 

2 See note to Purgatory, xxxi. 132. 

3 " II favoloso, e non molto elegante libro della Tavola Rotonda." Lan- 
dino, in the notes to the Paradise, xvi. 

4 Allessandro Vellutello was born in 1519. 

* Pompeo Venturi was born in 1693, and died in 1752. 



(xl) LIFE OF DANTE. 

bardi 1 . This good Franciscan, no doubt, must have g:~ 
himseli much pains to pick out and separate those ears of 
grain, which had escaped the flail of those who had gone 
before him in that labour. But his zeal to do something new 
often leads him to do something that is not over wise ; and if 
on certain occasions we applaud his sagaciousness, on otfaen 
we do not less wonder that his ingenuity should have been I : 
strangely perverted. His manner of writing is awkward and 
tedious : his attention, more than is necessary, directed to 
grammatical niceties ; and his attachment to one of the old 
editions, so excessive, as to render him disingenuous or partial 
in his representation of the rest. But to compensate this, he 
is a good G-hibelline ; and his opposition to Yenturi seldom 
fails to awaken him into a perception of those beauties which 
had only exercised the spleen of the Jesuit. 

He, who shall undertake another commentary on Dante 2 
yet completer than any of those which have hitherto appeared, 
must make use of these four, but depend on none. To them 
he must add several others of minor note, whose diligence will 
nevertheless be found of some advantage, and among 
I can particularly distinguish Yolpi. Besides this, many 
commentaries and marginal annotations, that are yet inedited, 

lain to be examined: many editions and manuscripts 3 to 
be more carefully collated ; and many separate dissertat: : n a 
and works of criticism to be considered. But this is not all. 
That line of reading which the Poet himself appears to have 
pursued (and there are many vestiges in his works by which 
we shall be enabled to discover it) must be diligently track e 1 ; 
and the search, I have little doubt, would lead to sources of 
information, equally profitable and unexpected. 

If there is any thing of novelty in the notes which accom- 
pany the following translation, it will be found to cons:-: 

1 Baldassare Lonibardi died January 2, 1802. See Cancellieri, Osserra- 
zioni, &c. Fvoma, 1814, p. 112. 

2 Francesco Cionacci, a noble Florentine, projected an edition of the 
Divina Coin media in one hundred Tolumes, each containing a single canto, 
followed by all the com m entaries, according to the order of time in which 
they were written, and accompanied by a Latin translation for the use of 
foreigners. CanceUieri, ibid. p. 64. 

3 The Count Mortara has lately shown me many various readings he has 
remarked on collating the numerous MSS. of Dante in the Canonici col- 
lection at the Bodleian. It is to be hoped he will make them public. 
[JanT. 1843.1 



LIFE OF DANTE. (xli) 

chiefly in a comparison of the Poet with himself, that is, of 
the Divina Commedia with his other writings ! ; a mode of 
illustration so obvious, that it is only to be wondered how 
others should happen to have made so little use of it. As to 
the imitations of my author by later poets, Italian and Eng- 
lish, which I have collected in addition to those few that had 
been already remarked, they contribute little or nothing to 
the purposes of illustration, but must be considered merely as 
matter of curiosity, and as instances of the manner in which 
the great practitioners in art do not scruple to profit by 
their predecessors. 



1 The edition which is referred to in the following notes, is that printed 
at Venice in 2 vols. 8vo. 1793. 



CHRONOLOGICAL VIEW 



OF 



THE AGE OF DANTE. 



A. D. 

1265 May. — DANTE, son of Alighieri degli AJighieri and 

Bella, is born at Florence. Of his own ancestry he 

speaks in the Paradise. Canto xv. and xvi. 
In the same year, Manfredi. king of Naples and Sicily, 

is defeated and slain by Charles of Anjou. H. xxviii. 

13. andPurg. iii. 110. 
Guido Novello of Polenta obtains the sovereignty of 

Ravenna. H. xxvii. 38. 
Battle of Evesham. Simon de Montfort, leader of the 

barons, defeated and slain. 

1266 Two of the Frati Godenti chosen arbitrators of the dif- 

ferences of Florence. H. xxiii. 104. 
Gianni de' Soldanieri heads the populace in that city. 

H. xxxii. 118. 
Roger Bacon sends a copy of his Opus Majus to Pope 

Clement IV. 
1268 Charles of Anjou puts Conradine to death, and becomes 

king of Naples. H. xxviii. 16. and Purg. xx. 66. 
1270 Louis IX. of France dies before Tunis. His widow, 

Beatrice, daughter of Raymond Berenger, lived till 

1295. Purg. vii. 126. Par. vi. 135. 
1272 Henry III. of England is succeeded by Edward I. 

Purg. vii. 129. 
Guy de Montfort murders Prince Henry, son of Richard, 

king of the Romans, and nephew of Henry III. of 

England, at Viterbo. H. xii. 119. Richard dies, as 

is supposed, of grief for this event. 
Abulfeda, the Arabic writer, is born. 



CHRONOLOGICAL VIEW. (xliii) 

A. D. 

1274 Our Poet first sees Beatrice, daughter of Folco Porti- 

nari. 
Rodolph acknowledged emperor. 
Philip III. of France marries Mary of Brabant, who 

lived till 1321. Purg. vi. 24. 
Thomas Aquinas dies. ' Purg. xx. 67. and Par. x. 96. 
Buonaventura dies. Par. xii. 25. 

1275 Pierre de la Brosse, secretary to Philip III. of France, 

executed. Puror. vi. 23. 

1276 Giotto, the painter, is born. Purg. xi. 95. 
Pope Adrian V. dies. Purg. xix. 97. 

Guido Guinicelli, the poet, dies. Purg. xi. 96. and 
xxvi. 83. 

1277 Pope John XXI. dies. Par. xii. 126. 

1278 Ottocar, king of Bohemia, dies. Purg. vii. 97. Robert 

of Gloucester is living at this time. 

1279 Dionysius succeeds to the throne of Portugal. Par. 

xix. 135. 

1280 Albertus Magnus dies. Par. x. 95. 

Our Poet's friend, Busone da Gubbio, is born about this 

time. See the Life of Dante prefixed. 
William of Ockbam is born about this time. 

1281 Pope Nicholas III. dies. H. xix. 71. 

Dante studies at the universities of Bologna and Padua. 
About this time Ricordano Malaspina, the Florentine 
annalist, dies. 

1282 The Sicilian vespers. Par. viii. 80. 

The French defeated by the people of Forli. H. 

xxvii. 41. 
Tribaldello de' Manfredi betrays the city of Faenza. 

H. xxxii. 119. 
1284 Prince Charles of Anjou is defeated and made prisoner 

by Rugier de Lauria, admiral to Peter III. of Arra- 

gon. Purg. xx. 78. 
Charles I. king of Naples, dies. Purg. vii. 111. 
Alonzo X. of Castile, dies. He caused the Bible to be 

translated into Castilian, and all legal instruments to 

be drawn up in that language. Sancho IV. succeeds 

him. 
Philip (next year IV. of France) marries Jane, daughter 

of Henry of Navarre. Purg. vii. 102. 



(xliv) CHRONOLOGICAL VIEW 

A. D. 

1285 Pope Martin IV. dies. Purg. xxiv. 23. 

Philip III. of France and Peter III. of Arragon die. 

Purg. vii. 101 and 110. 
Henry II. king of Cyprus, comes to the throne. Par. 

xix. 144. 
Simon Memmi, the painter, celebrated by Petrarch, is 

born. 

1287 Guido dalle Colonne (mentioned by Dante in his De 

Vulgari Eloquio) writes " The War of Troy." 
Pope Honorius IY. dies. 

1288 Haquin, king of Norway, makes war on Denmark. 

Par. xix. 135. 
Count Ugolino de' Gherardeschi dies of famine. H. 

xxxiii. 14. 
The Scottish poet, Thomas Learmouth, commonly called 

Thomas the Rhymer, is living at this time. 

1289 Dante is in the battle of Campaldino, where the Floren- 

tines defeat the people of Arezzo, June 1 1 . Purg. v. 90. 

1290 Beatrice dies. Purg. xxxii. 2. 

He serves in the war waged by the Florentines upon 

the Pisans, and is present at the surrender of Caprona 

in the autumn. H. xxi. 92. 
Guido dalle Colonne dies. 
William, marquis of Montferrat, is made prisoner by his 

traitorous subjects, at Alessandria in Lombardy. 

Purg. vii. 133. 
Michael Scot dies. H. xx. 115. 

1291 Dante marries Gemma de' Donati, with whom he lives 

unhappily. By this marriage he had five sons and a 

daughter. 
Can Grande della Scala is born, March 9. H. i. 98. 

Purg. xx. 16. Par. xvii. 75. and xxvii. 135. 
The renegade Christians assist the Saracens to recover 

St. John D'Acre. H. xxvii. 84. 
The Emperor Rodolph dies. Purg. vi. 104. and vii. 91. 
Alonzo III. of Arragon dies, and is succeeded by James 

II. Purg. vii. 113. and Par. xix. 133. 
Eleanor, widow of Henry III. dies. Par. vi. 135. 

1292 Pope Nicholas IY. dies. 
Roger Bacon dies. 

John Baliol, king of Scotland, crowned. 



OF THE AGE OF DANTE. (xlv) 

A. D. 

1294 Clement V. abdicates the papal chair. H. iii. 56. 
Dante writes his Vita Nuova. 

Fra Guittone d'Arezzo, the poet, dies. Purg. xxiv. 56. 
Andrea Taffi, of Florence, the worker in Mosaic, dies. 

1295 Dante's preceptor, Brunetto Latini, dies. H. xv. 28. 
Charles Martel, king of Hungary, visits Florence. Par. 

viii. 57. and dies in the same year. 
Frederick, son of Peter III. of Arragon, becomes king 

of Sicily. Purg. vii. 117. and Par. xix. 127. 
Taddeo, the physician of Florence, called the Hippo - 

cratean, dies. Par. xii. 77. 
Marco Polo, the traveller, returns from the East to 

Venice. 
Ferdinand IV. of Castile comes to the throne. Par. xix. 

122. 

1296 Forese, the companion of Dante, dies. Purg. xxxiii. 44. 
Sadi, the most celebrated of the Persian writers, dies. 
War between England and Scotland, which terminates 

in the submission of the Scots to Edward I. ; but in 
the following year, Sir William Wallace atempts the 
deliverance of Scotland. Par. xix. 121. 
1 298 The Emperor Adolphus falls in a battle with his rival, 
Albert I., who succeeds him in the Empire. Purg. 
vi. 98. 
Jacopo da Varagine, archbishop of Genoa, author of the 
Legenda Aurea, dies. 

1300 The Bianca and Nera parties take their rise in Pistoia. 

H. xxxii. 60. 
This is the year in which he supposes himself to see his 

Vision. H. i. 1. and xxi. 109. 
He is chosen chief magistrate, or first of the Priors of 

Florence : and continues in office from June 15, to 

August 15. 
Cimabue, the painter, dies. Purg. xi. 93. 
Guido Cavalcanti, the most beloved of our Poet's friends. 

dies. H. x. 59. and Pur^. xi. 96. 

1301 The Bianca party expels the Nera from Pistoia. H. 

xxiv. 142. 

1302 January 27. During his absence at Rome, Dante is 

mulcted by his fellow-citizens in the sum of 8000 
lire, and condemned to two years' banishment. 



(xlvi) CHRONOLOGICAL VIEW 

A. D. 

1302 March 10. He is sentenced, if taken, to be burned. 
Fulcieri de' Calboli commits great atrocities on certain 

of the Ghibelline party. Purg. xiv. 61. 
Carlino de' Pazzi betrays the castle di Piano Travigne, 

in Yaldarno, to the Florentines. H. xxxii. 67. 
The French vanquished in the battle of Courtrai. Purg. 

xx. 47. 
James, king of Majorca and Minorca, dies. Par. xix. 

133. 

1303 Pope Boniface VIII. dies. H. xix. 55. Purg. xx. 86 ; 

xxxii. 146. and Par. xxviL 20. 

The other exiles appoint Dante one of a council of 
twelve, under Alessandro da Romena. He appears 
to have been much dissatisfied with his colleagues. 
Par. xvii. 61. 

Robert of Brunne translates into English verse the 
Manuel de Peches, a treatise written in French by 
Robert Grosseteste, bishop of Lincoln. 

1304 Dante joins with the exiles in an unsuccessful attack on 

the city of Florence. 
May. The bridge over the Arno breaks down during 

a representation of the infernal torments exhibited 

on that river. H. xxvi. 9. 
July 20. Petrarch, whose father had been banished 

two years before from Florence, is born at Arezzo. 

1305 Winceslaus II. king of Bohemia, dies. Purg. vii. 99. 

and Par. xix. 123. 
A conflagration happens at Florence. H. xxvi. 9. 
Sir William Wallace is executed at London. 

1306 Dante visits Padua. 

1307 He is in Lunigiana with the Marchese Marcello Mala- 

spina. Purg. viii. 133; xix. 140. 
Dolcino, the fanatic, is burned. H. xxviii. 53. 
Edward II. of England comes to the throne. 

1308 The Emperor Albert I. murdered. Purg. vi. 98. and 

Par. xix. 114. 
Corso Donati, Dante's political enemy, slain. Purg. 

xxiv, 81. 
He seeks an asylum at Verona, under the roof of the 

Signori della Scala. Par. xvii. 69. 
He wanders, about this time, over various parts of 



OF THE AGE OF DANTE. (xlvii) 

A. D. 

1308 Italy. See his Convito. He is at Paris a second 
time ; and, according to one of the early commenta- 
tors, visits Oxford. 

Robert, the patron of Petrarch, is crowned king of 

Sicily. Par. ix. 2. 
Duns Scotus dies. He was born about the same time 

as Dante. 

1309 Charles II. king of Xaples, dies. Par. xix. 125. 

1310 The Order of the Templars abolished. Purg. xx. 94. 
Jean de Meun, the continuer of the Roman de la Rose, 

dies about this time. 
Pier Crescenzi of Bologna writes his book on agricul- 
ture, in Latin. ' 

1311 Fra Giordano da Rivalta, of Pisa, a Dominican, the au- 

thor of sermons esteemed for the purity of the Tus- 
can language, dies. 

1312 Robert, king of Sicily, opposes the coronation of the 

Emperor Henry VII. Par. viii. 59. 
Ferdinand IV. of Castile, dies, and is succeeded by 

Alonzo XL 
Dino Compagni, a distinguished Florentine, concludes 

his history of his own time, written in elegant Italian. 
Gaddo Gaddi, the Florentine artist, dies. 

1313 The Emperor Henry of Luxemburgh, by whom he had 

hoped to be restored to Florence, dies. Par. xvii. 

80. and xxx. 135. Henry is succeeded by Lewis of 

Bavaria. 
Dante takes refuge at Ravenna, with Guido Novello da 

Polenta. 
Giovanni Boccaccio is born. 
Pope Clement V. dies. H. xix. 86. and Par. xxvii. 53 

and xxx. 141. 

1314 Philip IV. of France dies. Purg. vii. 108. and Par 

xix. 117. 
Louis X. succeeds. 

Ferdinand IV. of Spain, dies. Par. xix. 122. 
Giacopo da Carrara defeated by Can Grande, who makes 

himself master of Yicenza. Par. ix. 45. 

1315 Louis X. of France marries Clemenza, sister to our 

Poet's friend, Charles Martel, king of Hungary. Par. 
ix. 2. 



(xlviii) CHRONOLOGICAL VIEW. 

A. D. 

1316 Louis X. of France dies, and is succeeded by Philip Y. 
John XXII. elected Pope. Par. xxvii. 53. 
Joinville, the French historian, dies about this time. 

1320 About this time John Gower is born, eight years before 

his friend Chaucer. 

1321 July. Dante dies at Ravenna, of a complaint brought 

on by disappointment at his failure in a negociation 
which he had been conducting with the Venetians, 
for his patron Guido Xovello da Polenta. 
His obsequies are sumptuously performed at Ravenna 
by Guido, who himself died in the ensuing year. 



THE VISION OF DANTE, 



mu> 



CANTO I. 



ARGUMENT. 

The writer, having lost his way in a gloomy forest, and being hindered by 
certain wild beasts from ascending a mountain, is met by Virgil, who pro- 
mises to show him the punishments of Hell, and afterwards of Purgatory ; 
and that he shall then be conducted by Beatrice into Paradise. He fol- 
lows the Roman poet. 

lN the midway l of this our mortal life, 
I found me in a gloomy wood, astray 
Gone from the path direct : and e'en to tell, 
It were no easy task, how savage wild 
That forest, how robust and rough its growth, 
Which to remember 2 only, my dismay 
Renews, in bitterness not far from death. 
Yet, to discourse of what there good befel, 
All else will I relate discover'd there. 

How first I enter'd it I scarce can say, 
Such sleepy dulness in that instant weigh'd 
My senses down, when the true path I left ; 

1 In the midway. ~\ That the aera of the Poem is intended by these words 
to be fixed to the thirty-fifth year of the poet's age, A. D. 1300, will appear 
more plainly in Canto xxi. where that date is explicitly marked. In his 
Convito, human life is compared to an arch or bow, the highest point of 
which is, in those well framed by nature, at their thirty-fifth year. Opere 
di Dante, ediz. Ven. 8yo, 1793. t. i. p. 195. 2 Which to remember.] 

" Even when I remember I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my 
flesh. " Job xxi. 6. 



(2) THE VISION. 13-39. 

But when a mountain's foot I reach'd, where closed 
The valley that had pierced my heart with dread. 
I look'd aloft; and saw his shoulders broad 
Already vested with that planet's beam. 1 
Who leads all wanderers safe through every way. 

Then was a little respite to the fear, 
That in my heart's recesses' 2 deep had Iain 
All of that night, so pitifully past : 
And as a man. with difficult short breath, 
Forespent with toiling. ? scaped from sea to shore, 
Turns 3 to the perilous wide waste, and stands 
At gaze ; e'en so my spirit, that yet faii'd, 
Struggling with terror, tunrd to view the straits 
That none hath past and lived. My weary frame 
After short pause recomforted, again 
I journey 'd on over that lonely steep. 
The hinder foot still firmer 4 . Scarce the ascent 
Began, when, lo ! a panther 5 , nimble, light, 
And cover'd with a speckled skin, appear'd; 
Nor, when it saw me, vanished ; rather strove 
To check mv onward Sfoins: : that oft-times, 
"With purpose to retrace my steps, I turn'd. 

The hour was morning's prime, and on his way 
Aloft the sun ascended with those stars 6 , 
That with him rose when Love divine first moved 
Those its fair works : so that with joyous hope 
All things conspired to fill me, the gay skin 7 

1 That planet's beam.'] The sun. 2 Mj/ heart's recesses.'] Nel lago 
del cuor. Lombard! cites an imitation of this by Redi in his Ditirambo : 

I buon vini son quegli. che acquetano 
Le proceile si fosche e rabeke, 
Che nel lago del enor 1' amine inquietano. 

3 Tarns.] So in our Poet's second psalm : 

Come colui. che andando per lo bosco, 

Da spino punto, a quel si volge e guar da. 
Even as one. in passing through a wood. 
Pierced by a thorn, at which he turns and looks. 

4 The hinder foot.] It is to be remembered, that in ascending a hill the 
weight of the body rests on the hinder foot. 5 A panther.] Pleasure or 
luxury, 6 With those stars.] The sun was in Aries, in which sign he 
supposes it to have begun its course at the creation. 7 The gay skin.] A 
late editor of the Divina Commeclia. Signer Zotti, has spoken of the present 
translation as the only one that has rendered this passage rightly: but Mr. 
Hayley had shown me the way, in his very skilfiil version of the first three 
Cantos of the Inferno, inserted in the notes to his Essay on Epic Poetry : 



40—56. HELL, Canto I. (3) 

Of that swift animal, the matin dawn, 
And the sweet season. Soon that joy was chased, 
And by new dread succeeded, when in view 
A lion l came, 'gainst me as it appear'd, 
With his head held aloft and hunger-mad, 
That e'en the air was fear-struck. A she-wolf 2 
Was at his heels, who in her leanness seem'd 
Full of all wants, and many a land hath made 
Disconsolate ere now. She with such fear 
O'erwhelm'd me, at the sight of her appall'd, 
That of the height all hope I lost. As one, 
Who, with his gain elated, sees the time 
When all unwares is gone, he inwardly 
Mourns with heart-griping anguish ; such was I, 
Haunted by that fell beast, never at peace, 
Who coming o'er against me, by degrees 
Impell'd me where the sun in silence rests 3 . 

I now was raised to hope sublime 
By these bright omens of my fate benign, 
The beauteous beast and the sweet hour of prime. 
All the commentators, whom I have seen, understand our Poet to say that 
the season of the year and the hour of the day induced him to liope for the 
gay skin of the panther ; and there is something in the sixteenth Canto, 
yerse 107, which countenances their interpretation, although that which I 
have followed still appears to me the more probable. 1 A lion.'] Pride 
or ambition. 2 A she-wolf ,] Avarice. It cannot be doubted that the 
image of these three beasts coming against him is taken by our author from 
the prophet Jeremiah, v. 6: " "Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay 
tfyem, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over 
their cities." Rossetti, following Dionisi and other later commentators, in- 
terprets Dante's leopard to denote Florence, his lion the king of France, and 
his wolf the Court of Rome. It is far from improbable that our author 
might have had a second allegory of this sort in his view ; even as Spenser 
in the introductory letter to his poem, tells us that " in the Faery Queen he 
meant Glory in his general intention, but in his particular he conceived the 
most excellent and glorious person of his sovereign the Queen." " And 
yet " he adds, "in some places else I do otherwise shadow her." Such in- 
volution of allegorical meanings may well be supposed to have been fre- 
quently present to the mind of Dante throughout the composition of this 
poem. Whether his acute and eloquent interpreter, Rossetti, may not have 
been carried much too far in the pursuit of a favourite hypothesis, is another 
question ; and I must avow my disbelief of the secret jargon imputed to our 
poet and the other writers of that time in the Comment on the Divina Corn- 
media and in the Spirito Antipapale, the latter of which works is familiarized 
to the English reader in Miss Ward's faithful translation. 
3 Where the sun in silence rests.] 

The sun to me is dark, When she deserts the night, 
And silent as the moon, Hid in her vacant interlunar cave. 

Milton, Sam. Agon, 
B 2 



(4) THE VISION. 57—84. 

While to the lower space with backward step 
I fell, my ken discern'd the form of one 
Whose voice seem'd faint through long disuse of speech. 
When him in that great desert I espied, 
" Have mercy on me," cried I out aloud, 
" Spirit ! or living man ! whate'er thou be." 

He answer'd : " Now not man, man once I was, 
And born of Lombard parents, Mantuans both 
By country, when the power of Julius l yet 
Was scarcely firm. At Rome my life was past, 
Beneath the mild Augustus, in the time 
Of fabled deities and false. A bard 
Was I, and made Anchises' upright son 
The subject of my song, who came from Troy, 
When the flames prey'd on Ilium's haughty towers 2 . 
But thou, say wherefore to such perils past 
Return'st thou ? wherefore not this pleasant mount 
Ascendest, cause and source of all delight ?" 
" And art thou then that Virgil, that well-spring, 
From which such copious floods of eloquence 
Have issued ? " I with front abash' d replied. 
" Glory and light of all the tuneful train ! 
May it avail me, that I long with zeal 
Have sought thy volume, and with love immense 
Have conn'd it o'er. My master thou, and guide 3 ! 
Thou he from whom alone I have derived 
That style, which for its beauty into fame 
Exalts me. See the beast, from whom I fled. 



The same metaphor will recur, Canto v. verse 29. 

Into a place I came 
"Where light was silent all. 
1 When the power of Julius.'] 

Nacqui sub Julio, ancorche fosse tardi. 
This is explained by the commentators : " Although it were rather late with 
respect to my birth, before Julius Csesar assumed the supreme authority, and 
made himself perpetual dictator." Virgil indeed was born twenty-five years 
before that event. 2 Ilium's haughty toicers.] 
Ceeiditque superbum 
Ilium. Virgil, JEn. iii. 3. 

3 My master thou, and guide .] 

Tu se' lo mio maestro, e' 1 mio autore, 

Tu se' solo colui. 

Thou art my father, thou my author, thou. 

Milton, P. L. ii. 864. 



85—102. HELL, Canto I. (5) 

O save me from her, thou illustrious sage ! 
For every vein and pulse throughout my frame 
She hath made tremble." He, soon as he saw 
That I was weeping, answer'd, " Thou must needs 
Another way pursue, if thou wouldst 'scape 
From out that savage wilderness. This beast, 
At whom thou criest, her way will suffer none 
To pass, and no less hindrance makes than death : 
So bad and so accursed in her kind, 
That never sated is her ravenous will, 
Still after food 1 more craving than before. 
To many an animal in wedlock vile 
She fastens, and shall yet to many more, 
Until that greyhound 2 come, who shall destroy 
Her with sharp pain. He will not life support 
By earth nor its base metals, but by love, 
Wisdom, and virtue ; and his land shall be 
The land 'twixt either Feltro 3 . In his might 

1 Still after food.] So Frezzi : 

La voglia sempre ha fame, e mai non s'empie, 
Ed al piu pasto piu riman digiuna. 

II Quadriregio, lib. ii. cap. xi. 
Venturi observes that the verse in the original is borrowed by Berni. 

2 That greyhound.'] This passage has been commonly understood as an 
eulogium on the liberal spirit of his Veronese patron, Can Grande della 
Scala. 3 ' Twixt either Feltro.] Verona, the country of Can della Scala, is 
situated between Feltro, a city in the Marca Trivigiana, and Monte Feltro, 
a city in the territory of Urbino. But Dante perhaps does not merely point 
out the place of Can Grande's nativity, for he may allude further to a pro- 
phecy, ascribed to Michael Scot, which imported that the " Dog of Verona 
would be lord of Padua and of all the Marca Trivigiana." It was fulfilled 
in the year 1329, a little before Can Grande's death. See G. Villani Hist. 
1. x. cap. cv. and cxli. and some lively criticism by Gasparo Gozzi, entitled 
Giudizio degli Antichi Poeti, &c, printed at the end of the Zatta edition of 
Dante, t. iv. part ii. p. 15. The prophecy, it is likely, was a forgery ; for 
Michael died before 1300, when Can Grande was only nine years old. See 
Hell, xx. 115, and Par. xvii. 75. Troya has given a new interpretation to 
Dante's prediction, which he applies to Uguccione della Faggiola, whose 
country also was situated between two Feltros. See the Veltro Allegorico 
di Dante, p. 110. But after all the pains he has taken, this very able writer 
fails to make it clear that Uguccione, though he acted a prominent part as a 
Ghibelline leader, is intended here or in Purgatory, c. xxxiii. 38. The main 
proofs rest on an ambiguous report mentioned by Boccaccio of the Inferno 
being dedicated to him, and on a suspicious letter attributed to a certain friar 
Ilario, in which the friar describes Dante addressing him as a stranger, and 
desiring him to convey that portion of the poem to Uguccione. There is no 
direct allusion to him throughout the Divina Commedia, as there is to the 
other chief public protectors of our poet during his exile. 



(6) THE VISION. 103—132. 

Shall safety to Italia's plains 1 arise, 
For whose fair realm, Camilla, virgin pure, 
Nisus, Euryalus, and Turnus fell. 
He, with incessant chase, through every town 
Shall worry, until he to hell at length 
Restore her, thence by envy first let loose. 
I, for thy profit pondering, now devise 
That thou mayst follow me ; and I, thy guide, 
Will lead thee hence through an eternal space, 
Where thou shalt hear despairing shrieks, and see 
Spirits of old tormented, who invoke 
A second death 2 ; and those next view, who dwell 
Content in fire 3 , for that they hope to come, 
Whene'er the time may be, among the blest, 
Into whose regions if thou then desire 
To ascend, a spirit worthier 4 than I 
Must lead thee, in whose charge, when I depart, 
Thou shalt be left : for that Almighty King, 
Who reigns above, a rebel to his law 
Adjudges me; and therefore hath decreed 
That, to his city, none through me should come. 
He in all parts hath sway ; there rules, there holds 
His citadel and throne. O happy those, 
Whom there he chuses ! n I to him in few : 
" Bard ! by that God, whom thou didst not adore, 
I do beseech thee (that this ill and worse 
I may escape) to lead me where thou said'st, 
That I Saint Peter's gate 5 may view, and those 
Who, as thou tell'st, are in such dismal plight." 
Onward he moved, I close his steps pursued. 

1 Italians plains.] " Umile Italia," from Virgil, 2En. lib. iii. 522. 

Huniilenique videmus 
Italiam. 

2 A second death.'] " And in these days men shall seek death, and shall 
not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them." Rey. ix. 6. 
3 Content in fire.] The spirits in Purgatory. 4 A spirit worthier.] 
Beatrice, who conducts the Poet through Paradise. 5 Saint Peter's gate.] 
The gate of Purgatory, which the Poet feigns to be guarded by an angel 
placed on that station by St. Peter. 



1—24. HELL, Canto II. (7) 

CANTO II. 



ARGUMENT. 

After the invocation, which poets are used to prefix to their works, he shows, 
that, on a consideration of his own strength, he douhted whether it suf- 
ficed for the journey proposed to him, hut that, "being comforted by Virgil, 
he at last took courage, and followed him as his guide and master. 

Now was the day departing \ and the air, 
Imbrown'd with shadows, from their toils released 
All animals on earth ; and I alone 
Prepared myself the conflict to sustain, 
Both of sad pity, and that perilous road, 
Which my unerring memory shall retrace. 

Muses ! O high genius ! now vouchsafe 
Your aid. O mind 2 ! that all I saw hast kept 
Safe in a written record, here thy worth 
And eminent endowments come to proof. 

1 thus began : "Bard ! thou who art my guide, 
Consider well, if virtue be in me 

Sufficient, ere to this high enterprise 

Thou trust me. Thou hast told that Silvius' sire 3 , 

Yet clothed in corruptible flesh, among 

The immortal tribes had entrance, and was there 

Sensibly present. Yet if heaven's great Lord, 

Almighty foe to ill, such favour show'd 

In contemplation of the high effect, 

Both what and who from him should issue forth, 

It seems in reason's judgment well deserved ; 

Sith he of Rome and of Rome's empire wide, 

In heaven's empyreal height was chosen sire : 

Both which, if truth be spoken, were ordain'd 

1 Now was the day.~\ A compendium of Virgil's description, JEn. lib. iv. 
522. Compare Apollonius Rhodius, lib. iii. 744. and lib. iv. 1058. 

The day gan failin ; and the darke night, 

That revith bestis from their businesse, 

Berafte me my booke, &c. Chaucer. The Assemble of Foules. 

2 O mind.'] 

O thought ! that write all that I met, Of my braine, now shall men see 
And in the tresorie it set If any virtue in thee be. 

Chaucer. Temple of Fame > b. ii. v. 18. 

3 Silvius' sire.] JSneas. 



(8) THE VISION. 25—58. 

And stablish'd for the holy place, where sits 

Who to great Peter's sacred chair succeeds. 

He from this journey, in thy song renown'd, ^ 

Learn'd things, that to his victory gave rise 

And to the papal robe. In after-times 

The chosen vessel l also travel'd there 2 , 

To bring us back assurance in that faith 

Which is the entrance to salvation's way. 

But I, why should I there presume ? or who 

Permits it ? not JEneas I, nor Paul. 

Myself I deem not worthy, and none else 

Will deem me. I, if on this voyage then 

I venture, fear it will in folly end. 

Thou, who art wise, better my meaning know'st, 

Than I can speak."/ As one, who unresolves 

What he hath late resolved, and with new thoughts 

Changes his purpose, from his first intent 

Removed ; e'en such was I on that dun coast, , 

Wasting in thought my enterprise, at first 

So eagerly embraced. " If right thy words 

I scan," replied that shade magnanimous, 

" Thy soul is by vile fear assail'd 3 , which oft 

So overcasts a man, that he recoils 

From noblest resolution, like a beast 

At some false semblance in the twilight gloom. ' 

That from this terror thou mayst free thyself, 

I will instruct thee why I came, and what 

I heard in that same instant, when for thee 

Grief touch'd me first. I was among the tribe, 

Who rest suspended 4 , when a dame, so blest 

And lovely I besought her to command, 

Call'd me ; her eyes were brighter than the star 

Of day ; and she, with gentle voice and soft, 

Angelically tuned, her speech address'd : 

1 The chosen vessel.] St. Paul. Acts ix. 15. " But the Lord said unto 
him, Go thy way; for he is a chosen vessel unto me." 2 There.] This 
refers to "the immortal tribes," v. 15. St. Paul haying been caught up to 
heaven. 2 Cor. xii. 2. 3 Thy soul is by vile fear assail'd.] 

L'anima tua e da viltate offesa. 
So in Berni, Orl. Inn. lib. iii. c. i. st. 53. Se Talma avete offesa da viltate. 

4 Who rest suspended.] The spirits in Limbo, neither admitted to a state 
of glory nor doomed to punishment. 



59—88. HELL, Canto II. (9) 

' O courteous shade of Mantua ! thou whose fame 

1 Yet lives, and shall live long as nature lasts 1 1 

' A friend, not of my fortune but myself 2 , 

6 On the wide desert in his road has met 

c Hindrance so great, that he through fear has turn'd. 

* Now much I dread lest he past help have stray'd, 
' And I be risen too late for his relief, 

1 From what in heaven of him I heard. Speed now, 
1 And by thy eloquent persuasive tongue, 
1 And by all means for his deliverance meet, 
t Assist him. So to me will comfort spring. 

* I, who now bid thee on this errand forth, 
' Am Beatrice 3 ; from a place I come 

1 Revisited with joy. Love brought me thence, 

' Who prompts my speech. When in my Master's sight 

1 I stand, thy praise to him I oft will tell.' 

" She then was silent, and I thus began : 
1 Lady ! 'by whose influence alone 
' Mankind excels whatever is contain'd 4 
' Within that heaven which hath the smallest orb, 
1 So thy command delights me, that to obey, 
1 If it were done already, would seem late. 
6 No need hast thou further to speak thy will : 

* Yet teli the reason, why thou art not loth 

' To leave that ample space, where to return 

* Thou burnest, for this centre here beneath.' 

" She then : ' Since thou so deeply wouldst inquire, 

* I will instruct thee briefly why no dread 

1 Hinders my entrance here. Those things alone 
' Are to be fear'd whence evil may proceed ; 

1 As nature lasts.'] Quanto '1 moto lontaua. " Mondo," instead of 
" moto," which. Lombardi claims as a reading peculiar to the Nidobeatina 
edition and some MSS., is also in Landino's edition of 148-i. Of this Monti 
was not aware. See his Proposta, under the word " Lontanare." 2 A 
friend, not of my fortune but myself.] Se non fortunse sed hominibus 
solere esse amicum. Cornelii Xepotis Attici Vitce, c. ix. 

Csetera fortunse, non mea turba, fait. Ovid. Trist. lib. i. el. 5. 34. 
My Fortune and my seeming destiny 
He made the bond, and broke it not with me. 

ColeHdge's Death of Wallenstein, act i. sc. 7. 
3 Beatrice.] The daughter of Folco Portinari, who is here invested with 
the character of celestial wisdom or theology. See the Life of Dante pre- 
fixed. 4 Whatever is contained.] Every other thing comprised within 
the lunar heaven, which, being the lowest of all, has the smallest circle. 



(10) THE VISION. 89—123. 

' None else, for none are terrible beside. 

6 I am so framed by God, thanks to his grace ! 

* That any sufferance of your misery 

' Touches me not, nor flame of that tierce fire 
t Assails me. In high heaven a blessed dame l 
4 Resides, who mourns with such effectual grief 
' That hindrance, which I send thee to remove, 
' That God's stern j udgment to her will inclines. 
' To Lucia 2 calling, her she thus bespake : 
" Now doth thy faithful servant need thy aid, 
" And I commend him to thee." At her word 
■ Sped Lucia, of all cruelty the foe, 
' And coming to the place, where I abode 
6 Seated with Rachel, her of ancient days, 

* She thus address'd me : " Thou true praise of God ! 
" Beatrice ! why is not thy succour lent 

" To him, who so much loved thee, as to leave 

" For thy sake all the multitude admires ? 

" Dost thou not hear how pitiful his wail, 

" Nor mark the death, which in the torrent flood, 

" Swoln mightier than a sea, him struggling holds ? " 

6 Ne'er among men did any with such speed 

c Haste to their profit, flee from their annoy, 

c As, when these words were spoken, I came here, 

' Down from my blessed seat, trusting the force 

f Of thy pure eloquence, which thee, and all 

' Who well have mark'd it, into honour brings.' 

"When she had ended, her bright beaming eyes 
Tearful she turn'd aside ; whereat I felt 
Redoubled zeal to serve thee. As she will'd, 
Thus am I come : I saved thee from the beast, 
Who thy near way across the goodly mount 
Prevented. What is this comes o'er thee then ? 
Why, why dost thou hang back ? why in thy breast 
Harbour vile fear ? why hast not courage there, 



1 A blessed dame.'] The Divine Mercy. 2 Lucia."] The enlightening 

Grace of Heaven ; as it is commonly explained. But Lombardi has well 
observed, that as our Poet places her in the Paradise, c. xxxii., amongst the 
souls of the blessed, so it is probable that she, like Beatrice, had a real ex- 
istence; and he accordingly supposes her to have been Saint Lucia the 
martyr, although she is here representative of an abstract idea. 



124—141. HELL, Canto II. (11) 

And noble daring ; since three maids \ so blest, 
Thy safety plan, e'en in the court of heaven ; 
And so much certain good my words forebode ? " 

As florets 2 , by the frosty air of night 
Bent down and closed, when day has blanch'd their leaves, 
Rise all unfolded on their spiry stems ; 
So was my fainting vigour new restored, 
And to my heart such kindly courage ran, 
That I as one undaunted soon replied : 
" O full of pity she, who undertook 
My succour ! and thou kind, who didst perforin 
So soon her true behest ! With such desire 
Thou hast disposed me to renew my voyage, 
That my first purpose fully is resumed. 
Lead on : one only will is in us both. w 

Thou art my guide, my master thou, and lord." 

So spake I ; and when he had onward moved, 
I enter'd on the deep and woody way. 



CANTO III. 



ARGUMENT. 

Dante, following Virgil, comes to the gate of Hell ; -where, after having read 
the dreadful words that are written thereon, they both enter. Here, as he 

1 Three maids.'] The Divine Mercy, Lncia, and Beatrice. 

2 As florets ?\ Come floretto dal notturno gelo 

Chinato e chiuso, poi che il sol l'imbianca, 
S'apre e si leva dritto sopra il stelo. 

Boccaccio. II Filostrato, p. iii. st. xiii. 
But right as floures through the cold of night 
Iclosed, stoupen in her stalkes lowe, 
Redressen hem agen the sunne bright, 
And spreden in her kinde course by rowe, &c. 

Chaucer. Troilus and Creseide, b. ii. 
It is from Boccaccio rather than Dante that Chaucer has taken this simile, 
which he applies to Troilus on the same occasion as Boccaccio has done. He 
appears indeed to have imitated or rather paraphrased the Filostrato in his 
Troilus and Creseide ; for it is not yet known who that Lollius is, from whom 
he professes to take the poem, and who is again mentioned in the House of 
Fame, b. iii. The simile in the text has been imitated by many others ; 
among whom see Berni, Orl. Inn. lib. 1. c. xii. st. 86. Marino, Adone, c. 
xvii. st. 63. and Son. " Donna vestita di nero," and Spenser's Faery Queen, 
b. iv. c. xii. st. 34. andb. vi. c. ii. st. 35. and Boccaccio again in the Teseide, 
lib. 9. st. 28. 



(12) THE VISION. 1—25. 

■understands from Virgil, those were punished who had past their time (for 
living it could not be called) in a state of apathy and indifference both to 
good and evil. Then pursuing their way, they arrive at the river Acheron ; 
and there find the old ferryman Charon, who takes the spirits over to the 
opposite shore ; which as soon as Dante reaches, he is seized with terror 
and falls into a trance. 

" Through me you pass into the city of woe : 
Through me you pass into eternal pain : 
Through me among the people lost for aye. 
Justice the founder of my fabric moved : 
To rear me was the task of power divine, 
Supremest wisdom, and primeval love 1 . 
Before me things create were none, save things 
Eternal, and eternal I endure. 
-All hope abandon 2 , ye who enter here." ^ 

Such characters, in colour dim, I mark'd 
Over a portal's lofty arch inscribed. 
TVhereat I thus : " Master, these words import 
Hard meaning." He as one prepared replied : 
" Here thou must all distrust behind thee leave ; 
Here be vile fear extinguished. "We are come 
^There I have told thee we shall see the souls 
To misery doom'd, who intellectual good 
Have lost." And when his hand 3 he had stretch'd forth 
To mine, with pleasant looks, whence I was cheer'd, 
Into that secret place he led me on. 

Here sighs 4 , with lamentations and loud moans, 
Resounded through the air pierced by no star, 
That e'en I wept at entering. Various tongues, 
Horrible languages, outcries of woe, 
Accents of anger, voices deep and hoarse, 

1 Power divine, 

Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.'] 
The three Persons of the Blessed Trinity. 

2 All hope abandon.] Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch' entrate. 

So Berni, Orl. Inn. lib. 1. c. 8. st. 53. Lascia pur della vita ogni speranza. 

3 And when his hand.] 

With that my hand in his he caught anone ; 
On which I comfort caught, and went in fast. 

^Chaucer. The Assemble of Foules. 

4 Here sighs.] " Post haec omnia ad loca tartarea, et ad os infcrnalis 
baratri deductus sum, qui simile videbatur puteo, loca vero eadem horridis 
tenebris, fa?toribus exhalantibus, stridoribus quoque et nimiis plena erant 
ejulatibus, juxta quern infernum vermis erat inhnitae magnitudinis, ligatus 
maxima catena." Alberici Visio, § 9. 



26—50. HELL, Canto III. (13) 

With hands together sniote that swell'd the sounds, 
Made up a tumult, that for ever whirls 
Eound through that air with solid darkness stain'd, 
Like to the sand 1 that in the whirlwind flies. 

I then, with error 2 yet encompast, cried : 
" O master ! what is this I hear ? what race 
Are these, who seem so overcome with woe ?" 

He thus to me : " This miserable fate 
Suffer the wretched souls of those, who lived 
Without or jDraise or blame, with that ill band 
Of angels mix 5 ?, who nor rebellious proved, 
Nor yet were true to God, but for themselves 
Were only. '■ From his bounds Heaven drove them forth, 
Not to impair his lustre ; nor the depth 
Of Hell receives them, lest the accursed tribe 3 
Should glory thence with exultation vain." 

I then : " Master ! what doth aggrieve them thus, 
That they lament so loud ? " He straight replied : 
" " That will I tell thee briefly. These of death 
No hope may entertain : and their blind life 
So meanly passes, that all other lots 
They envy. ' Fame 4 of them the world hath none, 
Nor suffers ; mercy and justice scorn them both. 
Speak not of them, but look, and pass them by." »' 

And I, who straightway look'd, beheld a flag 5 , 

1 Like to the sand.'] Unnumber'd as the sands 

Of Barca or Cyrene's torrid soil, 

Levied to side with warring winds, and poise 

Their lighter wings. Milton, P. L. b. ii. 903. 

2 With error.'] Instead of " error," Yellutello's edition of 1544 has " or- 
ror," a reading remarked also by Landino, in his notes. So much mistaken 
is the collater of the Monte Casino MS. in calling it " lezione da ninno no- 
tata;" "a reading which no one has observed." 3 Lest the accursed 
tribe. ~\ Lest the rebellious angels should exult at seeing those who were 
neutral, and therefore less guilty, condemned to the same punishment with 
themselves. Rossetti, in a long note on this passage, has ably exposed the 
plausible interpretation of Monti, who would have " alcuna gloria" mean 
"no glory," and thus make Virgil say "that the evil ones would derive no 
honour from the society of the neutral." A similar mistake in the same 
word is made elsewhere by Lombardi. See my note on c. xii. v. 9. 

4 Fame.] Cancel'd from heaven and sacred memory, 
Nameless in dark oblivion let them dwell. 

Milton, P. L. b. vi. 380. 
Therefore eternal silence be their doom. ' Ibid. 385. 

A flag.] All the grisly legions that troop 

Under the sooty flag of Acheron. Milton, Comus. 



(14) THE VISION. 51—77. 

Which whirling ran around so rapidly. 
That it no pause obtain'd : and following came 
Such a long train of spirits, I should ne'er 
Have thought that death so many had despoiFd. 

"When some of these I recognised. I saw 
And knew the shade of him. who to base fear 1 
Yielding, abjured his high estate. Forthwith 
I understood, for certain, this the tribe 
Of those ill spirits both to God displeasing 
And to his foes. These wretches, who ne'er lived, 
Went on in nakedness, and sorelv stuns: 
By wasps and hornets, which bedew'd their cheeks 
With blood, that, mix'd with tears, dropp'd to their feet. 
And by disgustful worms was gather'd there. 

Then looking further onwards, I beheld 
A throng upon the shore of a great stream : 

CD M. C 

Whereat I thus : " Sir ! grant me now to know 
Whom here we view, and whence impell'd they seem 
So eager to pass o'er, as I discern 
Through the blear light 2 ? " He thus to me in few : 
" This shalt thou know, soon as our steps arrive 
Beside the woeful tide of Acheron." 

Then with eyes downward cast, and fllTd with shame. 
Fearing mv words offensive to his ear. 
Till we had reach'd the river, I from speech 
Abstain'd. And lo ! toward us in a bark 
Comes on an old man 3 , hoary white with eld. 

1 TT7>o to base fear 

Yielding j abjured his high estate. ] 

This is commonly understood of Celestine the Fifth, who abdicated the pa- 
pal power in 1294. Venturi mentions a worn written by Innocenzio Bar- 
eellini, of the Celestine order, and printed at Milan in 1701. in which an at- 
tempt is made to pnt a different interpretation on this passage. Lombardi 
would apply it to some one of Dante's fellow- citizens, who. refusing, through 
avarice or want of spirit, to support the party of the Bianchi at Florence, had 
been the main occasion of the miseries that befel them. But the testimony 
of Fazio degli L'berti. who lived so near the rime of our author, seems almost 
decisive on this point. He expressly speaks of the Pope Celestine as being 
in hell. See the Dittamondo. L. iv. cap. xxi. The usual interpretation is 
further confirmed in a passage in Canto xxvii. v. 101. Petrarch, while he 
passes a high encomium on Celestine for his abdication of the papal power, 
gives us to understand that there were others who thought it a disgraceful 
act. See the De Tita Solit. b. ii. sect. hi. c. IS. 2 Through the blear 

light."] Lofioco lunie. So Filicaja, canz. vi. st. 12 : Qual ftoco lume. 
3 An old man.] Poititor has horrendus aquas et rlumina servat 



78 — 103. HELL, Canto III. (7 y 

Crying, " Woe to you, wicked spirits ! hope not 
Ever to see the sky again. I eome 
To take you to the other shore across, 
Into eternal darkness, there to dwell 
In fierce heat and in ice l .t\ And thou, who there 
" Standest, live spirit ! get thee hence, and leave 
These who are dead." But soon as he beheld 
I left them not, " By other way," said he, 
" By other haven shalt thou come to shore, 
Not by this passage ; thee a nimbler boat 2 
Must carry." Then to him thus spake my guide : 
" Charon ! thyself torment not : s<T 't is will'd, 
Where will and power are one : ask thou no more." 

Straightway in silence fell the shaggy cheeks 
Of him, the boatman o'er the livid lake 3 , 
Around whose eyes glared wheeling flames. Meanwhile 
Those spirits, faint and naked, colour changed, 
And gnash'd their teeth, soon as the cruel words 
They heard. God and their parents they blasphemed, 
The human kind, the place, the time, and seed, 
That did engender them and give them birth. 

Then all together sorely wailing drew 
To the curst strand, that every man must pass 
"Who fears not God. Charon, demoniac form, 
With eyes of burning coal 4 , collects them all, 
Beckoning, and each, that lingers, with his oar 

Terribili squalor e Charon, cui plurima mento 
Canities inculta jacet; slant lumina flamma. 

Virg. JEn. lib. vi. 298. 

1 In fierce heat and in ice.] The bitter change 

Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce, 
From beds of raging fire to starve in ice 

Their soft ethereal warmth. Milton, P. L. b. ii. 601. 

The delighted spirit 

To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside 

In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice. Shakspeare, Measure for 
Measure, a. iii. s. 1. See note to C. xxxii. 23. 

2 A nimbler boat.] He perhaps alludes to the bark "swift and light," in 
which the Angel conducts the spirits to Purgatory. See Purg. c. ii. 40. 

3 The livid lake.] _ Vada livida. _ Virg. ^En. lib. \i. 320. 

Totius ut lacus putidseque paludis 

Lividissima, maximeque est profunda vorago. Catullus, xviii. 10. 
* With eyes of burning coal.] 

His looks were dreadful, and his fiery eyes, 
Like two great beacons, glared bright and wide. 

Spenser, F. Q. b. vi. c. yii. st. 42. 



j) THE VISION. 104—126. 

Strike?. As fall off the light autumnal leaves l , 
One still another following, till the bourrh 
Strews all its honours on the earth beneath ; 
E'en in like manner Adam's evil brood 
Cast themselves, one by one, down from the shore, 
Each at a beck, as falcon at his call 2 . 

Thus go they over through the umber d wave ; 
And ever they on the opposing bank 
Be landed, on this side another throng 
Still gathers. " Son." thus spake the courteous guide, 
" Those who die subject to the wrath of God 
All here together come from every clime, 
And to o'erpass the river are not loth: 
For so heaven's justice goads them on. that fear 
Is turn'd into desire. Hence ne'er hath past 
Good spirit. If of thee Charon complain, 
Now mayst thou know the import of Lis words."' 

This said, the gloomy region trembling shook 
So terribly, that yet with clammy dews 
Fear chills my brow. The sad earth gave a blast, 
That, lightening, shot forth a vermilion flame, 
Which all my senses conquer'd quite, and I 
Down dropp'd, as one with sudden slumber seized. 



CANTO IV. 



ARGUMENT. 



UCM.CUUJ J-ULL'J I lliil U'J . "JLLi.k_.i-l. __-. -J-Lk.: i-LJ. ; - L^iliC Ui. XXCUi « JLIC1 < 

souls of those, who, although they have lived virtuously an 
suffer for great sins, nevertheless, through lack of baptism, 



The Poet, being roused by a clap of thunder, and following his guide onwards, 
descends into Limbo, which is the first circle of Hell, where he finds the 

and have not to 
merit not the 
bliss of Paradise. Hence he is led on by "Virgil to descend into the second 
circle. 

1 As fall off tin v. 7 leave s-."\ 

Quam mult a in silvis aurumni frigore primo 

Labsa cadunt folia. Yirg. JBn. lib. vi. . 

Thick as autumnal leaves, that strew the brooks 
In Vallonibrosa. where the Etrurian shades 

High over-arch a imbo^er. Mite?-. P. L. b. i. 304. 

Compare Apoll. It hod. lib. iv. p. 214. 

2 As falcon at his call.'] This is Vellutello's explanation, and seems pre- 
ferable to that commonly given : "' as a bird that is enticed to the cage by the 
call of another." 



1—34. HELL, Canto IV. (17, 

Broke the deep slumber in my brain a crash 

Of heavy thunder, that I shook myself, 

As one by main force roused. Risen upright, 

My rested eyes I moved around, and search'd, 

With fixed ken, to know what place it was 

Wherein I stood. For certain, on the brink 

I found me of the lamentable vale, 

The dread abyss, that joins a thundrous sound l 

Of plaints innumerable. Dark and deep, 

And thick with clouds o'erspread, mine eye in vain 

Explored its bottom, nor could aught discern. 

" Now let us to the blind world there beneath 
Descend ;" the bard began, all pale of look : 
" I go the first, and thou shalt follow next." 

Then I, his alter'd hue perceiving, thus : 
" How may I speed, if thou yieldest to dread, 
Who still art wont to comfort me in doubt ? " 

He then : " The anguish of that race below 
With pity stains my cheek, which thou for fear 
Mistakest. Let us on. Our length of way 
Urges to haste." Onward, this said, he moved ; 
And entering led me with him, on the bounds 
Of the first circle that surrounds the abyss. 

Here, as mine ear could note, no plaint was heard 
Except of sighs, that made the eternal air 
Tremble, not caused by tortures, but from grief 
Felt by those multitudes, many and vast, 
Of men, women, and infants. Then to me 
The gentle guide : " Inquirest thou not what spirits 
Are these which thou beholdest ? Ere thou pass 
Farther, I would thou know, that these of sin 
Were blameless ; and if aught they merited, 
It profits not, since baptism was not theirs, 
The portal 2 to thy faith. If they before 

1 A thundrous sound.] Imitated, as Mr. Thyer has remarked, by Milton, 
P. L. b. viii.242: 

But long, ere our approaching, heard 

Noise, other than the sound of dance or song, 
Torment, and loud lament, and furious rage. 

2 Portal.'] " Porta della fede." .This was an alteration made in the text 
by the Academicians della Crusca, on the authority, as it would appear, of 
only two MSS. The other reading is " parte della fede ;" " part of the faith." 

C 



v i3); THE VISION. 35—59. 

f 1 The Gospel lived, they served not God aright ; 
And among such am I. For these defects, 
And for no other evil, we are lost ; 
Only so far afflicted, that we live 
Desiring without hope V '-' Sore grief assail'd 
My heart at hearing this, for well I knew 
Suspended in that Limbo many a soul 
Of mighty worth. xx " O tell me, sire revered ! 
Tell me, my master ! " I began, through wish 
Of full assurance in that holy faith 
Which vanquishes all error ; " say, did e'er 
Any, or through his own or other's merit, 
Come forth from thence, who afterward was blest ?" 

Piercing the secret purport 2 of my speech, 
He answer'd : "I was new to that estate, 
"When I beheld a puissant one 3 arrive 
Amongst us, with victorious trophy crown'd. 
He forth 4 the shade of our first parent drew, 
Abel his child, and Noah righteous man, 
Of Moses lawgiver for faith approved, 
Of patriarch Abraham, and David king, 
Israel with his sire and with his sons, 
Xor without Rachel whom so hard he won, 
And others many more, whom he to bliss 
Exalted. Before these, be thou assured, 

1 Desiring without hope.] 

And with, desire to languish without hope. Milton, P. L. b. x. 99-5. 

2 Secret purport.] Lombardi well observes, that Dante seems to have 
been restrained by awe and reverence from uttering the name of Christ in 
this place of torment ; and that for the same cause, probably, it does not oc- 
cur once throughout the whole of this first part of the poem. 3 A puissant 
one.] Our Saviour. 4 He forth.] The author of the Quadriregio has 
introduced a sublime description into his imitation of this passage : — 

Pose le reni la dove si serra ; 

Ma Ciisto lui e '1 catarcion d' acciajo 
E queste porte allora gettd a terra. 
Quando in la grotta entro '1 lucido rajo, 
Adamo disse : quest o e lo splendor e 
Che mi sr>iro in faccia da piimajo. 
Venuto se' aspettato Signore. L. ii. cap. 3. 

Satan hung writhing round the bolt ; but him, 
The huge portcullis, and those gates of brass, 
Christ threw to earth. As down the cavern stream'd 
The radiance : " Light,'' said Adam, " this, that breathed 
First on me. Thou art come, expected Lord ! " 
Much that follows is closely copied by Frezzi from our Poet. 



60—90. HELL, Canto IV. (19) 

No spirit of human kind was ever saved." 

We, while he spake, ceased not our onward road, 
Still passing through the wood ; for so I name 
Those spirits thick beset. We were not far 
On this side from the summit, when I kenn'd 
A flame, that o'er the darken'd hemisphere 
Prevailing shined. Yet we a little space 
Were distant, not so far but I in part 
Discover' d that a tribe in honour high 
That place possess'd. " thou, who every art 
And science valuest ! who are these, that boast 
Such honour, separate from all the rest ? " 

He answer' d : " The renown of their great names, 
That echoes through your world above, acquires 
Favour in heaven, which holds them thus advanced." 
Meantime a voice I heard : " Honour the bard 
Sublime 1 ! his shade returns, that left us late !" 
No sooner ceased the sound, than I beheld 
Four mighty spirits toward us bend their steps, 
Of semblance neither sorrowful nor glad 2 . 

When thus my master kind began : " Mark him, 
Who in his right hand bears that falchion keen, 
The other three preceding, as their lord. 
This is that Homer, of all bards supreme : 
Flaccus the next, in satire's vein excelling ; 
The third is Naso ; Lucan is the last. 
Because they all that appellation own, 
With which the voice singly accosted me, 
Honouring they greet me thus, and well they judge." 

So I beheld united the bright school 
Of him the monarclTof subiimest song 3 , 

1 Honour the bard — Sublime.] Onorate 1' altissimo poeta. So Chiabrera, 
Canz. Erioche. 32. Onorando P altissimo poeta. 

2 Of semblance neither sorrowful nor glad.] 

She nas to sober ne to glad. Chaucer's Dream. 

3 The mwiarch of subiimest song.] Homer. It appears from a passage 
in the Convito, that there was no Latin translation of Homer in Dante's 
time. " Sappia ciascuno, &c." p. 20. " Every one should know, that 
nothing, harmonized by musical enchainment, can be transmuted from one 
tongue into another without breaking all its sweetness and harmony. And 
this is the reason why Homer has never been turned from Greek into Latin, 
as the other writers we have of theirs. " This sentence, I fear, may well be 
regarded as conclusive against the present undertaking. Yet would I will- 

c 2 



(20) THE VISION. 91—114. 

That o'er the others like an eagle soars. 

When they together short discourse had held, 
They turn'd to me, with salutation kind 
Beckoning me ; at the which my master smiled : 
Nor was this all ; but greater honour still 
They gave me, for they made me of their tribe ; 
And I was sixth amid so learn'd a band. 

Far as the luminous beacon on we pass'd, 
Speaking of matters, then befitting well 
To speak, now fitter left untold K At foot 
Of a magnificent castle we arrived, 
Seven times with lofty walls begirt, and round 
Defended by a pleasant stream. O'er this 
As o'er dry land we pass'd. Next, through seven gates,, 
I with those sages enter'd, and we came 
Into a mead with lively verdure fresh. 

There dwelt a race, who slow their eyes around 
Majestically moved, and in their port 
Bore eminent authority : they spake 
Seldom, but all their words were tuneful sweet. 

We to one side retired, into a place 
Open and bright and lofty, whence each one 
Stood manifest to view. Incontinent, 
There on the green enamel 2 of the plain 

ingly bespeak for it at least so much indulgence as Politian claimed for him- 
self, when in the Latin translation, which he afterwards made of Homer, but 
which has since unfortunately perished, he ventured on certain liberties both 
of phraseology and metre, for which the nicer critics of his time thought fit 
to call him to an account : " Ego vero tametsi rudis in primis non adeo ta- 
men obtusi sum pectoris in versibus maxime faciundis, ut spatia ista morasque 
non sentiam. Vero cum mihi de Graeco pasne ad verbum forent antiquissima 
interpretanda carmina, fateor affectayi equidem ut in verbis obsoletam ve- 
tustatem, sic in mensura, ipsa et numero gratam quandam ut speravi novi- 
tatem." Ep. Kb. i. Baptistae Guarino. 

1 Fitter left untold.'] Che'l tacere e bello. 

So our Poet, in Canzone 14 ■ La vide in parte che'l tacere e bello. 

Ruccellai, Le Api, 789 : Ch' a dire e brutto ed a tacerlo e bello. 

And Bembo : Vie piu bello e il tacerle, che il favellarne. Gli Asol. lib. 1. 

2 Green enamel.] " Verde smalto." Dante here uses a metaphor that 
has since become very common in poetry. 

O'er the smooth enamel'd green. Milton, Arcades. 
" Enameling, and perhaps pictures in enamel, were common in the middle 
ages, &c." Warton, Hist, of Eng. Poetry, v. i. c. xiii. p. 376. " This art 
flourished most at Limoges, in France. So early as the year 1197, we have 
duas tabulas aeneas superauratas de labore Limogiae. Chart, ann. 1197 apud 
Ughelin. torn. vii. Ital. Sacr. p. 1274." Warton. Jbid. Additions to v. i. 



115—128. HELL, Canto IV. (21) 

Were shown me the great spirits, by whose sight 
I am exalted in my own esteem. 

Electra 1 there I saw accompanied 
By many, among whom Hector I knew, 
Anchises' pious son, and with hawk's eye 
Caesar all arrn'd, and by Camilla there 
Penthesilea. On the other side, 
Old king Latinus seated by his child 
Lavinia, and that Brutus I beheld 
Who Tarquin chased, Lucretia, Cato's wife 
Marcia, with Julia 2 and Cornelia there; 
And sole apart retired, the Soldan fierce 3 . 

Then when a little more I raised my brow, 
I spied the master of the sapient throng 4 , 

printed in toL ii. Compare AValpole's Anecdotes of Painting in England, 
vol. i. c. ii. 1 Electro,.] The daughter of Atlas, and mother of Dardanns 
the founder of Troy. See Yirg. iEn. 1. viii. 134. as referred to by Dante in 
the treatise " De Monarchic," lib. ii. " Electra, scilicet, nata magni no- 
minis regis Atlantis, ut de ambobus testimonium reddit pocta noster in oc- 
tavo, ubi iEneas ad Evandrum sic ait, * Dardanus Iliacae,' &c." 2 Julia.] 
The daughter of Julius Caesar, and wife of Pompey. 3 The Soldan 

fierce.] Saladin, or Salaheddin, the rival of Richard Cceur de Lion. See 
D'Herbelot, Bibl. Orient, the Life of Saladin, by Bohao'cdin Ebn Shedad, 
published by Albert Schultens, with a Latin translation, and Knolles's Hist. 
of the Turks, p. 57 to 73. " About this time (1193) died the great Sultan 
Saladin, the greatest terror of the Christians, who, mindful of man's fragility 
and the vanity of worldly honours, commanded at the time of his death no 
solemnity to be used at his burial, but only his shirt, in manner of an en- 
sign, made fast unto the point of a lance, to be carried before his dead body 
as an ensign, a plain priest going before, and crying aloud unto the people 
in this sort, ' Saladin, Conqueror of the East, of all the greatness and riches 
he had in his life, carrieth not with him any thing more than his shirt.' A 
sight worthy so great a king, as wanted nothing to his eternal commend- 
ation more than the true knowledge of his salvation in Christ Jesus. He 
reigned about sixteen years with great honour." He is introduced by Pe- 
trarch in the Triumph of Fame, c. ii. ; and by Boccaccio in the Decameron, 
G. x. N. 9. 4 The master of the sapient throng.] Maestro di color che sanno. 
Aristotle. — Petrarch assigns the first place to Plato. See Triumph of 
Fame, c. iii. 

Volsimi da man inanca, e vidi Plato 

Che 'n quella schiera ando piu presso al segno 
A qual aggiunge, a chi dal cielo e dato. 
Aristotile poi pien d' alto ingegno. 

Pulci, in his Morgante Maggiore, c. xviii. says, 
Tu se' il maestro di color che sanno. 

The reverence in which the Stagirite was held by our author, cannot be 
better shown than by a passage in his Convito, p. 142 : " Che Aristotile sia 
degnissimo, &c." " That Aristotle is most worthy of trust and obedience, 
may be thus proved. Amongst the workmen or artificers of different arts 
and operations, which are in order to some final art or operation, he, who is 



(22) THE VISION. 129—141. 

Seated amid the philosophic train. 
Him all admire, all pay him reverence due. 
There Socrates and Plato both I mark'd 
Nearest to him in rank, Democritus, 
Who sets the world at chance \ Diogenes, 
With Heraclitus, and Empedocles, 
And Anaxagoras, and Thales sage, 
Zeno, and Dioscorides well read 
In nature's secret lore. Orpheus I mark'd 
And Linus, Tully and moral Seneca, 
Euclid and Ptolemy, Hippocrates, 
Galenus, Avicen 2 , and him who made 
That commentary vast, Averroes 3 . 

the artist or operator in that, ought chiefly to be obeyed and trusted by the 
rest, as being the one who alone considers the ultimate end of all the other 
ends. Thus he, who exercises the occupation of a knight, ought to be obeyed 
by the sword-cutler, the bridle-maker, the armourer, and hj all those trades 
which are in order to the occupation of a knight. And because all human 
operations respect a certain end, which is that of human life, to which man, 
inasmuch as he is man, is ordained, the master or artist, who considers of 
and teaches us that, ought chiefly to be obeyed and trusted : now this is no 
other than Aristotle ; and he is therefore the most deserving of trust and 
obedience." 

1 Democritus, 

Who sets the world at chance.'] 
Democritus, who maintained the world to have been formed by the fortui- 
tous concourse of atoms. 2 Avicen.'] See D'Herbelot, Bibl. Orient, arti- 
cle Sina. He died in 1050. Pulci here again imitates our Poet : 
Avicenna quel che il sentimento 
Intese di Aristotile e i segreti, 

Averrois che fece il gran comento. Morg. Mag. c. xxv. 
Chaucer, in the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, makes the Doctour of 
Phisike familiar with 

Avicen, 

Averrois. — — 
Sguarda Avicenna mio con tre corone, 
Ch' egli fu Prence, e di scienza pieno, 

E util tanto air umane persone. Frezzi. II Quadrir. 1. iv. cap. 9. 

Fuit Avicenna vir summi ingenii, magnus Philosophus, excellens medicus, 

et summus apud suos Theologus. Sebastian Scheffer, Introd. in Artem 

Medicam, p. 63, as quoted in the Historical Observations on the Quadriregio. 

Ediz. 1725. 

3 Him who made 

That commentary vast, Averroes.] 

II gran Platone, e V altro che sta attento 
Mirando il cielo, e sta a lui a lato 
Averrois, che fece il gran comento. 

Frezzi. II Quadrir. 1. iv. cap. 9. 
Averroes, called by the Arabians Roschd, translated and commented the 
works of Aristotle. According to Tiraboschi (Storia della Lett. Ital. t. v. 1. ii. 



142—148. HELL, Canto TV. (23) 

Of all to speak at full were vain attempt ; 
For my wide theme so urges, that oft-times 
My words fall short of what bechanced. In two 
The six associates part. Another way 
My sage guide leads me, from that air serene, 
Into a climate ever vex'd with storms : 
And to a part I come, where no light shines. x} 



CANTO V. 



ARGUMENT. 

Coming into the second circle of Hell, Dante at the entrance beholds Minos 
the Infernal Judge, by whom he is admonished to beware how he enters 
those regions. Here he witnesses the punishment of carnal sinners, who 
are tost about ceaselessly in the dark air by the most furious winds. 
Amongst these, he meets with Francesca of Rimini, through pity at whose 
sad tale he falls fainting to the ground. 

From the first circle ' I descended thus 
Down to the second, which, a lesser space 
Embracing, so much more of grief contains, 
Provoking bitter moans. There Minos stands, 

c. ii. sect. 4.) he was the source of modern philosophical impiety. The critic 
quotes some passages from Petrarch (Senil. 1. v. ep. iii. et Oper. v. ii. p. 1143) 
to show how strongly such sentiments prevailed in the time of that poet, by 
whom they were held in horror and detestation. He adds, that this fanatic 
admirer of Aristotle translated his writings with that felicity', which might be 
expected from one who did not know a syllable of Greek, and who was there- 
fore compelled to avail himself of the unfaithful Arabic versions. D'Herbelot, 
on the other hand, informs us, that " Averroes was the first who translated 
Aristotle from Greek into Arabic, before the Jews had made their translation ; 
and that we had for a long time no other text of Aristotle, except that of the 
Latin translation, which was made from this Arabic version of this great phi- 
losopher (Averroes), who afterwards added to it a very ample commentary, of 
which Thomas Aquinas, and the other scholastic writers, availed themselves, 
before the Greek originals of Aristotle and his commentators were known to 
us in Europe." According to D'Herbelot, he died in 1198 ; but Tiraboschi 
places that event about 1206. "Averroes," says "Warton, "as the Asiatic 
schools decayed by the indolence of the Caliphs, was one of those philosophers 
who adorned the Moorish schools erected in Africa and Spain. He was a 
professor in the University of Morocco. He wrote a commentary on all 
Aristotle's works. He was styled the most Peripatetic of all the Arabian 
writers. He was born at Cordova, of an ancient Arabic family." Hist, of 
Eng. Poetry, vol. i. sect. xvii. p. 441. 1 From the first circle^ Chiabre- 
ra's twenty-first sonnet is on a painting, by Cesare Corte, from this Canto. 
Mr. Fuseli, a much greater name, has lately employed his wonder-working 
pencil on the same subject. 



(24) THE VISION. 5—42 

Grinning wiA ghastly feature l : he, of all 

Who enter, strict examining the crimes. 

Gives sentence, and dismisses them beneath. 

According as he foldeth him around : 

For when before him comes the ill-fated soul. 

It all confesses : and that judge severe 

Of sins, considering what place in hell 

Suits the transgression, with his tail so oft 

Himself encircles, as degrees beneath 

He dooms it to descend. Before him stand 

Alway a numerous throng : and in his turn 

Each one to judgment passing, speaks, and hears 

His fate, thence downward to his dwelling huiTd. 

" thou ! who to ::".:■ e of woe 

Approachest ! ? " when he saw me coming, cried 
Minos, relinquishing his dread employ. 
"Look how thou enter here ? beware in whom 
Thou place thy trust ; let not the entrance broad 
Deceive thee to thy harm." To him my guide : 
"Wherefore exclaim est ? Hinder not his way 
By destiny appointed ; so 'tis wilTd. 
"Where will and power are one. Ask thou no more." 

Now "gin the rueful wailings to be heard. 
Now am I come where many a plaining voice 
Smites on mine ear. Into a place I came 
Where li^ht was silent all. Bellowing there srroan'd 
A noise, as of a sea in tempest torn 
By warring win is. The stormy blast of hell 
With restless fury drives the spirits on. 
WhirFd round and dasifd amain with sore annoy. 
When they arrive before the ruinous sweep. 
There shrieks are heard, there lamentations, moans, 
And blasphemies "gainst the good Power in heaven. 

I understood, that to this torment sad 
The carnal sinners are condemn'd. in whom 
Reason by lust is sway'd. As in large troops 
And multitudinous, when winter reigns. 
The starlings on their wings are " :r: 

1 Grinning with ghastly feed :' Hence Milton : 

Griim'd horrible a ghastly smile. P. L. b. ii. 845. 



43—62. HELL, Canto V. (25) 

So bears the tyrannous gust those evil souls. 

On this side and on that, above, below, 

It drives them : hope of rest to solace them 

Is none, nor e'en of milder pang. As cranes ! , 

Chanting their dolorous notes, traverse the sky, 

Stretch'd out in long array ; so I beheld 

Spirits, who came loud wailing, hurried on 

By their dire doom. Then I : " Instructor ! who 

Are these, by the black air so scourged?" — "The first 

'Mong those, of whom thou question'st," he replied, 

" O'er many tongues was empress. She in vice 

Of luxury was so shameless, that she made 

Liking 2 be lawful by promulged decree, 

To clear the blame she had herself incurr'd. 

This is Semiramis, of whom 'tis writ, 

That she succeeded Ninus her espoused 3 ; 

And held the land, which now the Soldan rules. 

The next in amorous fury slew herself, 

And to Sicheus' ashes broke her faith : 

Then follows Cleopatra, lustful queen." 

1 As cranes.'] This simile is imitated by Lorenzo de' Medici, in his Am- 
bra, a poem, first published by Mr. Roscoe, in the Appendix to his Life of 
Lorenzo : 

Marking the tracts of air, the clamorous cranes 
Wheel their due flight in varied ranks descried ; 
And each with outstretch'd neck his rank maintains, 
In marshaled order through the ethereal void. 

Roscoe, v. i. c. v. p. 257, 4to edit. 
Compare Homer II. iii. 3. Virgil, JEn. 1. x. 264. Oppian Halieut. lib. i. 
620. Ruccellai, Le Api, 942. and Dante's Purgatory, xxiv. 63. 

2 Liking. 1 His lustes were as law in his degree. 

Chaucer, Mortice's Tale. Nero. 

3 That she succeeded Ninus her espoused.] 

Che succedette a Nino e fu sua sposa. 
M. Artaud, in his Histoire de Dante, p. 589, mentions a manuscript work 
called Attacanti's Quadragesimale de reditu peccatoris ad Deuni, in which 
the line is thus cited : 

Che sugger dette a Nino e fu sua sposa. 
" Who suckled Ninus, and was his wife." 
This remarkable reading had been before noticed by Federici. Intorno ad 
alcune variant! nel testo della Divina Commedia. * Ed. Milan. 1836. See 
the Biblioteca Italiana. Tom. 82. p. 282. It appears from the treatise De 
Monarchic (1. ii.) that Dante derived his knowledge of Assyrian history 
from his favourite author Orosius, (1. i. c. iv.) who relates that Semiramis 
both succeeded Ninus through the artifice of personating her son, and that 
she committed incest with her son ; but as the name of her husband Ninus 
only is there recorded, and as other historians call the son Ninias, it is pro- 
bable that the common reading is right. 



(26) THE VISION. 6a— 96. 

There mark'd I Helen, for whose sake so long 
The time was fraught with evil : there the great 
Achilles, who with love fought to the end. 
Paris I saw, and Tristan ; and beside, 
A thousand more he showed me, and bv name 
Pointed them out, whom love bereaved of life. 

TThen I had heard my sage instructor name 
Those dames and knights of antique days, o'erpower'd 
By pity, well-nigh in amaze my mind 
"Was lost ; and I began : " Bard ! willingly 
I would address those two together coming, 
"Which seem so light before the wind." He thus : 
"Note thou, when nearer they to us approach. 
Then by that love which carries them along, 
Entreat : and thev will come." Soon as the wind 
Sway'd them toward us, I thus framed my speech : 
" wearied spirits ! come, and hold discourse 
With us, if by none else restrain'd." As doves 
By fond desire invited, on wide wings 
And firm, to their sweet nest returning home, 
Cleave the air, wafted by their will along ; 
Thus issued, from that troop where Dido ranks, 
They, through the ill air speeding : with such force 
My cry prevail'd, by strong affection urged. 

M gracious creature and benign ! who go'st 
Visiting, through this element obscure 1 , 
TJs, who the world with bloody stain imbrued ; 
If, for a friend, the King of all, we own'd, 
Our prayer to him should for thy peace arise, 
Since thou hast pity on our evil plight. 
Of whatsoe'er to hear or to discourse 
It pleases thee, that will we hear, of that 
Freely with thee discourse, while e'er the wind, 
As now, is muter The land 2 , that gave me birth, 

1 Element obscure.'] '• L'aer perso." Much, is said by the commentators 
concerning the exact sense of the word u perso." It cannot be explained in 
clearer terms than those used by Dante himself in his Convito : " II perso e 
un colore misto di purpureo e nero, ma vince il nero." p. 18-5. u It is a 
colour mixed of purple and black, but the black prevails.'' The word re- 
curs several times in this poem. Chaucer also uses it, in the Prologue to 
the Canterbury Tales. Doctour of Phisike : 

In sanguin and in perse he clad vras alle. 

2 The land.] Ravenna. 



97—113. HELL, Canto V. (27) 

Is situate on the coast, where Po descends 
To rest in ocean with his sequent streams. 

" Love, that in gentle heart is quickly learnt 1 , 
Entangled him by that fair form, from me 
Ta'en in such cruel sort, as grieves me still : 
Love, that denial takes from none beloved 2 , 
Caught me with pleasing him so passing well, 
That, as thou seest, he yet deserts me not. 
Love brought us to one death : Cai'na 3 waits 
The soul, who spilt our life." Such were their words ; 
At hearing which, downward I bent my looks, 
And held them there so long, that the bard cried : 
" What art thou pondering ?" I in answer thus : 
" Alas ! by what sweet thoughts, what fond desire 
Must they at length to that ill pass have reach'd ! " 

Then turning, I to them my speech address'd, 
And thus began : "Francesca 4 ! your sad fate 



1 Love, that in gentle heart is quickly learnt.'] 

Amor, ch'al cor gentil ratto s'apprende. 
A line taken by Marino, Adone, c. cxli. st. 251. 

That the reader of the original may not be misled as to the exact sense of 
the word " s'apprende," which I have rendered " is learnt," it may be right 
to apprise him that it signifies " is caught," and that it is a metaphor from a 
thing taking fire. Thus it is used by Guido Guinicelli, whom indeed our 
Poet seems here to have had in view : 

Fuoco d'Amore in gentil cor s'apprende, 
Come vertute in pietra preziosa. 
Sonetti, &c, di diversi Antichi Toscani. Ediz. Giunti, 1527.1. ix. p. 107- 
The fire of love in gentle heart is caught, 
As virtue in the precious stone. 

2 Love, that denial takes from none beloved.] 

Amor, ch' a null' amato amar perdona. 
So Boccaccio, in his Filocopo, 1. 1. 

Amore mai non perdono l'amore a nullo amato. 
And Pulci, in the Morgante Maggiore, c. iv. 

E perche amor mal volontier perdona, 

Che non sia al fin sempre amato chi ama. 
Indeed many of the Italian poets have repeated this verse. 3 Ca'ina.] 
The place to which murderers are doomed. 4 Francesca.] Francesca, 
daughter of Guido da Polenta, lord of Ravenna, was given by her father in 
marriage to Lanciotto, son of Malatesta, lord of Rimini, a man of extra- 
ordinary courage, but deformed in his person. His brother Paolo, who un- 
happily possessed those graces which the husband of Francesca wanted, 
engaged her affections ; and being taken in adultery, they were both put to 
death by the enraged Lanciotto. See Notes to Canto xxvii. v. 38 and 43. 
Troya relates, that they were buried together ; and that three centuries after, 
the bodies were found at Rimini, whither they had been removed from 
Pesaro, with the silken garments yet fresh. Yeltro Allegorico di Dante, 



(28) THE VISION. 114-130. 

Even to tears iny grief and pity moves. 

But tell me ; in the time of your sweet sighs. 

By what, and how Love granted, that ye knew 

Your yet uncertain wishes ? " She replied : 

i; Xo greater grief than to remember days 

Of joy, when misery is at hand 1 . 1 ' That kens 

Thy learn'd instructor. Yet so eagerly 

If thou art bent to know the primal root, 

From whence our love gat being, I will do 

As one, who weeps and tells his tale. One day, 

For our delight we read of Lancelot 2 , 

How him love thrall'd. Alone we were, and no 

Suspicion near us. Oft-times by that reading - 

Our eyes were drawn together, and the hue 

Fled from our alter'd cheek. But at one point 3 

Alone we fell. TYhen of that smile we read, 

The wished smile so rapturously kiss'd 

Ediz. 1826. p. 33. The whole of this passage is alluded to by Petrarch, in 
his Triumph of Love, c. iii. : 

Ecco quei che le carte enipioii di sogni 
Lancilotto Tristano e gli altri erranti : 
Onde coiiTien che '1 vulgo errante agogni ; 
Tedi Ginevra, Isotta e l'altre aniauti ; 
E la coppia d'Ariniino che 'nsieme 
Tanno facendo dolorosi pianti. 
Mr. Leigh Hunt has expanded the present episode into a beautiful poem, 
in his " Story of Rimini." 

1 Xo greater grief than to remember days 
Of joy, when misery is at hand.] 
Imitated by Chaucer : 

For of Fortunis sharp adversite A man to have been in prosperite, 

The worste kind of infortune is this, And it remembir when it passid is. 

Troilus and Creseid-e, b. iii. 
By Marino : 

Che non ha doglia il misero maggiore, 

Che ricordar la gioia entro il dolore. Adone, c. xir. st. 100. 
And by Fortiguerra : 

Rimembrare il ben perduto 

Fa piu meschino lo presente stato. Ricciardetto, c. xi. st. S3. 
The original, perhaps, was in Boetius de Consol. Philosoph. "In omni ad- 
Tersitate fortunse infelicissimum genus est infortunii fuisse felicem et non 
esse." 1. 2. pr. 4. Boetius, and Cicero de Amicitia, were the two first 
books that engaged the attention of Dante, as he himself tells us in the Con- 
vito, p. 68. 2 Lancelot.] One of the Knights of the Round Table, and 
the lover of GineYra, or Guinever, celebrated in romance. The incident 
alluded to seems to have made a strong impression on the imagination 
of Dante, who introduces it again, in the Paradise, Canto xvi. 

3 At one point.] Questo quel punto fu, che sol mi rinse. ^ - 

Tasso, II Torrismondo, a. i. s. 3. > 



131—133 HELL, Canto V- (29) 

By one so deep in love, then he, who ne'er 
From me shall separate, at once my lips 
All trembling kiss'd. The book and writer both 
Were love's purveyors. In its leaves that day 
We read no more V While thus one spirit spake, 
The other wail'd so sorely, that heart-struck 
I, through compassion fainting, seem'd not far 
From death, and like a corse fell to the ground 2 . 



CANTO VI. 



ARGUMENT. 

On his recovery, the Poet finds himself in the third circle, where the glut- 
tonous are punished. Their torment is, to lie in the mire, under a con- 
tinual and heavy storm of hail, snow, and discoloured water ; Cerberus 
meanwhile barking over them with his threefold throat, and rending 
them piecemeal. One of these, who on earth was uamed Ciacco, foreteLs 
the divisions with which Florence is about to be distracted. Dante pro- 
poses a question to his guide, who solves it ; and they proceed towards the 
fourth circle. 

My sense reviving 3 , that erewhile had droop' d 

With pity for the kindred shades, whence grief 

O'ercame me wholly, straight around I see 

New torments, new tormented souls, which way 

Soe'er I move, or turn, or bend my sight. 

In the third circle I arrive, of showers 

Ceaseless, accursed, heavy and cold, unchanged 

For ever, both in kind and in degree. 

Large hail, discolour' d water, sleety flaw 

Through the dun midnight air stream' d down amain : 

Stank all the land whereon that tempest fell. 

1 hi its leaves that day 

We read no ?nore.] Nothing can exceed the delicacy with which Fran- 
ceses in these words intimates her guilt. 
■ And like a corse fell to the ground.'] 

E caddi, come corpo morto cade. 
So Pulci : E cadde come morto in terra cade. Morgante Maggiore, c. xxii. 
And Ariosto : E cada, come corpo morto cade. Orl. Fur. c. ii. st. 55. 
" And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead." Revelation, i. 17. 
3 My sense revivi?ig.] Al tornar della mento, che si chiuse, 

Dinanzi alia pieta de' duo cognati. 
Berni has made a sportive application of these lines, in his Orl. Inn. lib. iii 
e. viii, st. 1. 



(30) THE VISION. 12—43. 

Cerberus, cruel monster, fierce and strange, 
Through his wide threefold throat, barks as a dog 
Over the multitude immersed beneath. 
His eyes glare crimson, black his unctuous beard, 
His belly large, and claw'd the hands, with which 
He tears the spirits, flays them, and their limbs 
Piecemeal disparts. Howling there spread, as curs, 
Under the rainy deluge, with one side 
The other screening, oft they roll them round, 
A wretched, godless crew. When that great worm l 
Descried us, savage Cerberus, he oped 
His jaws, and the fangs show'd us ; not a limb 
Of him but trembled. Then my guide, his palms 
Expanding on the ground, thence fill'd with earth 
Raised them, and cast it in his ravenous maw. 
E'en as a dog, that yelling bays for food 
His keeper, when the morsel comes, lets fall 
His fury, bent alone with eager haste 
To swallow it ; so dropp'd the loathsome cheeks 
Of demon Cerberus, who thundering stuns 
The spirits, that they for deafness wish in vain. 

We, o'er the shades thrown prostrate by the brunt 
Of the heavy tempest passing, set our feet 
Upon their emptiness, that substance seem'd. 

They all along the earth extended lay, 
Save one, that sudden raised himself to sit, 
Soon as that way he saw us pass. " O thou ! " 
He cried. " who through the infernal shades art led, 
Own, if again thou know'st me. Thou wast framed 
Or ere my frame was broken." I replied : 
" The anguish thou endurest perchance so takes 
Thy form from my remembrance, that it seems 

1 That great tcorm.~\ Juxta— infenmm vermis erat infinita? magnitudinis 
ligatus maxima catena. Alberici Visio, § 9. 
In Canto xxxiv. Lucifer is called 

The abhorred worm, that boreth through the world. 
This is imitated by Ariosto, Orl. Fur. c. xlvi. st. 76. Shakspeare, Milton, 
and Cowper, who well understood that the most common words are often the 
most impressive, have used the synonymous term in our language with the 
best effect; as Pindar has done in Greek: 

'A7TO TavyeTov fxkv Ka.Ka.ivav 

iirl Siipari Kvva Tpiys.iv irvKLvayraTOV kpTCETOv. 

Heyne's Pindar. Fragm. Epinic. ii. 2. In Hleron. 



44—73. HELL, Canto VI. (31) 

As if I saw thee never. But inform 
Me who thou art, that in a place so sad 
Art set, and in such torment, that although 
Other be greater, none disgusteth more." 
He thus in answer to my words rejoin'd : 
" Thy city, heap'd with envy to the brim, 
Aye, that the measure overflows its bounds, 
Held me in brighter days. Ye citizens 
Were wont to name me Ciacco 1 . For the sin 
Of gluttony, damned vice, beneath this rain, 
E'en as thou seest, I with fatigue am worn : 
Nor I sole spirit in this woe : all these 
Have by like crime incurr'd like punishment." 

No more he said, and I my speech resumed : 
"Ciacco ! thy dire affliction grieves me much, 
Even to tears. But tell me, if thou know'st, 
What shall at length befal the citizens 
Of the divided city 2 ; whether any 
Just one in habit there : and tell the cause, 
Whence jarring Discord hath assail'd it thus." 

He then : " After long striving they will come 
To blood ; and the wild party from the woods 3 
Will chase the other 4 with much injury forth. 
Then it behoves that this must fall 5 , within 
Three solar circles 6 ; and the other rise 
By borrow'd force of one, who under shore 
Now rests 7 . It shall a long space hold aloof 
Its forehead, keeping under heavy weight 
The other opprest, indignant at the load, 
And grieving sore. The just are two in number 8 , 

1 Ciacco.] So called from his inordinate appetite ; Ciacco, in Italian, sig- 
nifying a pig. The real name of this glutton has not been transmitted to 
us. He is introduced in Boccaccio's Decameron, Giorn. ix. Nov. 8. 

2 The divided city.~\ The city of Florence, divided into the Bianchi and 
Xeri factions. 3 The wild party from the woods. ~] So called, because it 
was headed by Veri de' Cerchi, whose family had lately come into the city 
from Acone, and the woody country of the Val di Nievole. 4 The other"] 
The opposite party of the Neri, at the head of which was Corso Donati. 

5 This must fall.] The Bianchi. 6 Three solar circles.] Three years. 

7 Of one, who under shore 

JN oio rests.] 
Charles of Valois, by whose means the Neri were replaced. 
* The just are tico in number.] Who these two were, the commentators 
are not agreed. Some understand them to be Dante himself and his friend 



(32) THE VISION. 74—97. 

But they neglected. Avarice, envy, pride 1 , 

Three fatal sparks, have set the hearts of all 

On fire." Here ceased the lamentable sound ; 

And I continued thus : " Still would I learn 

More from thee, further parley still entreat. 

Of Farinata and Tegghiaio 2 say, 

They who so well deserved ; of Giacopo 3 , 

Arrigo, Mosca 4 , and the rest, who bent 

Their minds on working good. Oh ! tell me where 

They bide, and to their knowledge let me come. 

For I am prest with keen desire to hear 

If heaven's sweet cup, or poisonous drug of hell, 

Be to their lip assign'd." He answer'd straight : 

" These are yet blacker spirits. Various crimes 

Have sunk them deeper in the dark abyss. 

If thou so far descendest, thou mayst see them. 

But to the pleasant world, when thou return'st, 

Of me make mention, I entreat thee, there. 

No more I tell thee, answer thee no more." 

This said, his fixed eyes he turn'd askance, 
A little eyed me, then bent down his head, 
' And 'midst his blind companions with it fell. 

When thus my guide : " No more his bed he leaves, 
Ere the last angel-trumpet blow. The Power 

Guido Cavalcanti. But this would argue a presumption, which our Poet 
himself elsewhere contradicts ; for, in the Purgatory, he owns his conscious- 
ness of not being exempted from one at least of " the three fatal sparks, which 
had set the hearts of all on fire." See Canto xiii. 126. Others refer the 
encomium to Barduccio and Giovanni Vespignano, adducing the following 
passage from Villain in support of their opinion : " In the year 1331 died in 
Florence two just and good men, of holy life and conversation, and bountiful 
in almsgiving, although laymen. The one was named Barduccio, and was 
buried in S. Spirito, in the place of the Frati Komitani : the other, named 
Giovanni da Yespignano, was buried in S. Pietro Maggiore. And by each, 
God showed open miracles, in healing the sick ,and lunatic after divers 
manners ; and for each there was ordained a solemn funeral, and many 
images of wax set up in discharge of vows that had been made. G. Villani, 
lib. x. cap. clxxix. 

1 Avarice, envy, pride.~\ Invidia, superbia ed avarizia 

Vedea moltiplicar tra miei figliuoli. 
Fazio degli TJberti, Dittamondo, lib. i. cap. xxix. 

s Of Farinata and Tegghiaio >.] See Canto x. and Notes, and Canto xvi. 
and Notes. 3 Giacopo.] Giacopo Rusticucci. See Canto xvi. and Notes. 

4 Arrigo, Mosca.'] Of Arrigo, who is said by the commentators to have 
been of the noble family of the Fifanti, no mention afterwards occurs. 
Mosca degli Uberti, or de' Lamberti, is introduced in Canto xxviii. 



98-117. HELL, Canto VI. (33) 

Adverse to these shall then in glory come, 

Each one forthwith to his sad tomb repair, 

Resume * his fleshly vesture and his form, 

And hear the eternal doom re-echoing rend 

The vault." So pass'd we through that mixture foul 

Of spirits and rain, with tardy steps ; meanwhile 

Touching 2 , though slightly, on the life to come. 

For thus I question'd : " Shall these tortures, Sir ! 

When the great sentence passes, be increased, 

Or mitigated, or as now severe?" 

He then : " Consult thy knowledge 3 ; that decides, 
That,' as each thing to more perfection grows, 
It feels more sensibly both good and pain. 
Though ne'er to true perfection may arrive 
This race accurst, yet nearer then, than now, 
They shall approach it." Compassing that path, 
Circuitous we journey'd ; and discourse, 
Much more than I relate, between us pass'd : 
Till at the point, whence the steps led below, 
Arrived, there Plutus, the great foe, we found. 



CANTO VII. 



ARGUMENT. 

In the present Canto, Dante describes his descent into the fourth circle, at 
the beginning of which he sees Plutus stationed. Here one like doom 
awaits the prodigal and the avaricious ; which is, to meet in direful con- 
flict, rolling great weights against each other with mutual upbraidings. 
From hence Virgil takes occasion to show how rain the goods that are 
committed into the charge of Fortune ; and this moves our author to in- 
quire what being that Fortune is, of whom he speaks: which question 
being resolved, they go down into the fifth circle, where they find the 

1 Resume.'] Imitated by Frezzi : — 

Allor ripiglieran la carne e l'ossa ; 
Li rei oscuri, e i buon con splendori 
Per la virtu deila divina possa. II Quadr. lib. iv. cap. xv. 

2 Totwhing.] Conversing, though in a slight and superficial manner, on 
the life to come. 3 Consult thy knowledge.'] "We are referred to the fol- 
lowing passage in St. Augustin : — " Cum fiet resurrectio carnis, et bonorum 
gaudia et malorum tormenta majora erunt." — "At the resurrection of the 
flesh, both the happiness of the good and the torments of the wicked will be 
increased." 

D 



(34) THE VISION. 1—20. 

wrathful and gloomy tormented in the Stygian lake. Having made a 
compass round great part of this lake, they come at last to the base of a 
lofty tower. 

" Ah me ! O Satan ! Satan l ! " loud exclaim'd 

Plutus, in accent hoarse of wild alarm : 

And the kind sage, whom no event surprised, 

To comfort me thus spake : " Let not thy fear 

Harm thee, for power in him, be sure, is none 

To hinder down this rock thy safe descent." 

Then to that swoln lip turning, " Peace ! " he cried, 

" Curst wolf ! thy fury inward on thyself 

Prey, and consume thee ! Through the dark profound, 

Not without cause, he passes. So 'tis will'd 

On high, there where the great Archangel pour'd 

Heaven's vengeance on the first adulterer proud 2 ." 

As sails, full spread and bellying with the wind, 
Drop suddenly collapsed, if the mast split ; 
So to the ground down dropp'd the cruel fiend. 

Thus we, descending to the fourth steep ledge, 
Gain'd on the dismal shore, that all the woe 
Hems in of all the universe. Ah me ! 
Almighty Justice ! in what store thou heap'st 3 
New pains, new troubles, as I here beheld. 

1 Ah me ! O Satan ! Satan /] Pape Satan, Pape Satan, aleppe. 

Pape is said by the commentators to be the same as the Latin \?oid.papce ! 
" strange!" Of aleppe they do not give a more satisfactory account. See 
the Life of Benvenuto Cellini, translated by Dr. Nugent, v. ii. b. iii. c. vii. p. 
113, where he mentions " haying heard the words Paix, paix, Satan ! allez, 
p>aix ! in the courts of justice at Paris. I recollected what Dante said, when 
he with his master Virgil entered the gates of hell : for Dante, and Giotto 
the painter, were together in France, and visited Paris with particular at- 
tention, where the court of justice may be considered as hell. Hence it is 
that Dante, who was likewise perfect master of the French, made use of that 
expression ; and I have often been surprised that it was never understood in 
that sense." 2 The first adulterer proud. ~\ Satan. The word " fornica- 
tion," or "adultery," "strupo," is here used for a revolt of the affections 
from God, according to the sense in which it is often applied in Scripture. 
But Monti, following Grassi's " Essay on Synonymes," supposes " strupo" 
to mean "troop"; the word "strap" being still used in the Piemontese 
dialect for " a flock of sheep," and answering to " troupeau " in French. In 
that case, "superbo strupo" would signify "the troop of rebel angels who 
sinned through pride." 3 In what store thou heap'st.'] Some under- 
stand " chi stipa" to mean either "who can imagine," or "who can de- 
scribe the torments," &c. I have followed Landino, whose words, though 
very plain, seem to have been mistaken by Lombardi : " Chi stipa, chi accu- 
mula, ed insieme raccoglie ; quasi dica, tu giustizia aduni tanti supplicii." 



21—50. HELL, Canto VII. (35) 

Wherefore doth fault of ours bring us to this ? 

E'en as a billow l 9 on Charybdis rising, 
Against encounter' d billow dashing breaks ; 
Such is the dance this wretched race must lead, 
Whom more than elsewhere numerous here I found. 
From one side and the other, with loud voice, 
Both rolTd on weights, by main force of their breasts, 
Then smote together, and each one forthwith 
RolTd them back voluble, turning again ; 
Exclaiming these, " Why holdest thou so fast ? " 
Those answering, " And why castest thou away?" 
So, still repeating their despiteful song, 
They to the opposite point, on either hand, 
Traversed the horrid circle ; then arrived, 
Both turn'd them round, and through the middle space 
Conflicting met again. At sight whereof 
I, stung with grief, thus spake : " O say, my guide ! 
What race is this. Were these, whose heads are shorn. 
On our left hand, all separate to the church ? " 

He straight replied : " In their first life, these all 
In mind were so distorted, that they made, 
According to due measure, of their wealth 
No use. This clearly from their words collect, 
Which they howl forth, at each extremity 
Arriving of the circle, where their crime 
Contrary in kind disparts them. To the church 
Were separate those, that with no hairy cowls 
Are crown'd, both Popes and Cardinals 2 , o'er whom 
Avarice dominion absolute maintains." 

I then : " 'Mid such as these some needs must be, 

1 E'en as a billow."] 

As when two billows in the Irish sowndes, 
Forcibly driven with contrarie tides, 
Do meet together, each aback rebonnds 
With roaring rage, and dashing on all sides, 
That filleth all the sea with foam, divides 
The donbtful current into divers waves. 

Spenser, F. Q. b. iv. c. i. st. 42. 

2 Popes and Cardinals.'] Ariosto having personified Avarice as a strange 
and hideous monster, says of her — 

Peggio facea nella Romana corte, 

Che v'avea uccisi Cardinali e Papi. Orl. Fur. c. xxvi. st. 32. 
Worse did she in the Court of Rome, for there 
She had slain Popes and Cardinals. 
D 2 



(36) THE VISION. 51—81. 

Whom I shall recognise, that with the blot 
Of these foul sins were stairi'd." He answering thus : 
" Vain thought conceivest thou. That ignoble life, 
Which made them vile before, now makes them dark, 
And to all knowledge indiscernible. 
For ever they shall meet in this rude shock : 
These from the tomb with clenched grasp shall rise, 
Those with close-shaven locks. That ill they gave, 
And ill they kept, hath of the beauteous world 
Deprived, and set them at this strife, which needs 
No labour'd phrase of mine to set it off. 
Now mayst thou see, my son ! how brief, how vain, 
The goods committed into Fortune's hands, 
For which the human race keep such a coil ! 
' Not all the gold 1 that is beneath the moon, 
Or ever hath been, of these toil-worn souls 
Might purchase rest for one." 1 I thus rejoin'd : 
" My guide ! of thee this also would I learn ; 
This Fortune, that thou speak'st of, what it is, 
Whose talons grasp the blessings of the world." 
He thus : " O beings blind ! what ignorance 
Besets you ! Now my judgment hear and mark. 
He, whose transcendent wisdom 2 passes all, 
The heavens creating, gave them ruling powers 
To guide them ; so that each part 3 shines to each, 
Their light in equal distribution pour'd. 
By similar appointment he ordain'd, 
Over the world's bright images to rule, 
Superintendence of a guiding hand 
And general minister 4 , which, at due time, 
May change the empty vantages of life 

1 ISlot all the gold.] Tutto l'oro ch' e sotto la luna. 

For all the gode under the colde mone. 

Chaucer, Legende of Hypermnestra. 
a He, whose transcendent wisdom.'] Compare Frezzi : 

Dio e primo prince in ogni parte 

Sempre e di tutto, &c. II Quadrir. lib. ii. cap. ii. 
3 Each part.] Each hemisphere of the heavens shines upon that hemi- 
sphere of the earth which is placed under it. 4 General minister.] Lom- 
bardi cites an apposite passage from Augustin, De Civitate Dei, lib. v. : — 
" Nos eas causas, quae dicuntur fortuitse (unde etiam fortuna nomen accepit) 
non dicimus nullas, sed latentes, easque tribuimus, yel veri Dei, ycl quorum- 
libet spirituum yoluntati." 



82—109. HELL, Canto VII. (37) 

From race to race, from one to other's blood, 

Beyond prevention of man's wisest care : 

Wherefore one nation rises into sway, 

Another languishes, e'en as her will 

Decrees, from us conceal'd, as in the grass 

The serpent train. *5 Against her nought avails 

Your utmost wisdom. She with foresight plans, 

Judges, and carries on her reign, as theirs 

The other powers divine. Her changes know 

None intermission : by necessity l 

She is made swift, so frequent come who claim 

Succession in her favours. This is she, 

So execrated e'en by those whose debt 

To her is rather praise : they wrongfully 

With blame requite her, and with evil word ; 

But she is blessed, and for that recks not : 

Amidst the other primal beings glad, 

Rolls on her sphere, and in her bliss exults. 

Now on our way pass we, to heavier woe 

Descending : for each star 2 is falling now, 

That mounted at our entrance, and forbids 

Too long our tarrying." We the circle cross'd 

To the next steep, arriving at a well, 

That boiling pours itself down to a foss 

Sluiced from its source. 9 Far murkier was the wave 

Than sablest grain :' and we in company 

Of the inky waters, journeying by their side, 

Enter'd, though by a different track 3 , beneath. 

1 By necessity.] This sentiment called forth the reprehension of Fran- 
cesco Stabili, commonly called Cecco d' Ascoli, in his Acerba, lib. i. c. i. 

In cio peccasti, Fiorentin poeta, 

Ponendo che li ben della fortuna 

Necessitati sieno con lor meta. 

Non e fortuna, cui ragion non Tinea. 

Or pensa Dante, se prova nessuna 

Si puo piii fare che questa convinca. 

Herein, O bard of Florence, didst thou err, 

Laying it down that fortune's largesses 

Are fated to their goal. Fortune is none, 

That reason cannot conquer. Mark thou, Dante, 

If any argument may gainsay this. 

2 Each star."] So Boccaccio: " Giu ogni stella a cader comincio,che sa- 
lia." Dec. G. 3. at the end. 3 A different track.] Una via diversa. 
Some understand this " a strange path"; as the word is used in the preced- 
ing Canto; " fiera crudele e diversa," " monster fierce and strange"; and 



(38) THE VISION. 110-134. 

Into a lake, the Stygian named, expands 
The dismal stream, when it hath reach'd the foot 
Of the grey wither'd cliffs. Intent I stood 
To gaze, and in the marish sunk descried 
A miry tribe, all naked, and with looks 
Betokening rage. They with their hands alone 
Struck not, but with the head, the breast, the feet, 
Cutting each other piecemeal with their fangs. 

The good instructor spake : " Now seest thou, son ! 
The souls of those, whom anger overcame. 
This too for certain know, that underneath 
The water dwells a multitude, whose sighs 
Into these bubbles make the surface heave, 
As thine eye tells thee wheresoe'er it turn. 
Fix'd in the slime, they say: ' Sad once were we, 
6 In the sweet air made gladsome by the sun, 
' Carrying a foul and lazy mist within : 
6 Now in these murky settlings are we sad.' 
Such dolorous strain they gurgle *in their throats, 
But word distinct can utter none." Our route 
Thus compass'd we, a segment widely stretch' d 
Between the dry embankment, and the core 
Of the loath'd pool, turning meanwhile our eyes 
Downward on those who gulp'd its muddy lees ; 
Nor stopp'd, till to a tower's low base we came. 



CANTO VIII. 



ARGUMENT. 

A signal haying been made from the tower, Phlegyas, the ferryman of the 
lake, speedily crosses it, and conveys Virgil and Dante to the other side. 
On their passage, they meet with Filippo Argenti, whose fury and tor- 
ment are described. They then arrive at the city of Dis, the entrance 
whereto is denied, and the portals closed against them by many Demons. 

My Iheme pursuing l , I relate, that ere 
We reach'd the lofty turret's base, our eyes 

in the Vita Nuova, " visi diversi ed orribili a vedere," " visages strange and 
horrible to see." 

1 My theme pursuing .] It is. related by some of the early commentators, 
that the seven preceding Cantos were found at Florence after our Poet's 
banishment, by some one, who was searching over his papers, which^ were 



3—30. HELL, Canto VIII. (39) 

Its height ascended, where we mark'd uphung 

Two cressets, and another saw from far 

Return the signal, so remote, that scarce 

The eye could catch its beam. I, turning round 

To the deep source of knowledge, thus inquired : 

" Say what this means ; and what, that other light 

In answer set : what agency doth this ? " 

" There on the filthy waters," he replied, 
" E'en now what next awaits us mayst thou see, 
If the marsh-gendered fog conceal it not." 

Never was arrow from the cord dismiss'd, 
That ran its way so nimbly through the air, 
As a small bark, that through the waves I spied 
Toward us coming, under the sole sway 
Of one that ferried it, who cried aloud : 
" Art thou arrived, fell spirit ? " — " Phlegyas, Phlegyas \ 
This time thou criest in vain," my lord replied ; 
" No longer shalt thou have us, but while o'er 
The slimy pool we pass." As one who hears 
Of some great wrong he hath sustain'd, whereat 
Inly he pines : so Phlegyas inly pined 
In his fierce ire. My guide, descending, stepp'd 
Into the skiff, and bade me enter next, 
Close at his side ; nor, till my entrance, seem'd 
The vessel freighted. Soon as both embark'd, 
Cutting the waves, goes on the ancient prow, 
More deeply than with others it is wont. 

While we our course 2 o'er the dead channel held, 

left in that city ; that by this person they were taken to Dino Frescobaldi ; 
and that he, being much delighted with them, forwarded them to the Mar- 
chese Morello Malaspina, at whose entreaty the poem was resumed. This 
account, though very circumstantially related, is rendered improbable by the 
prophecy of Ciacco in the sixth Canto, which must hare been written after 
the events to which it alludes. The manner, in which the present Canto 
opens, furnishes no proof of the truth of the report ; for, as Maffei remarks 
in his Osservazioni Letterarie, torn. ii. p. 249, referred to by Lombard!, it 
might as well be affirmed that Ariosto was interrupted in his Orlando Furi- 
oso, because he begins c. xvi. 

Dico la bella storia ripigliando. 
And c. xxii. Ma tornando al lavor, che vario ordisco. 

1 Phlegyas.] Phlegyas, who was so incensed against Apollo, for haying 
violated his daughter Coronis, that he set fire to the temple of that deity, by 
whose vengeance he was cast into Tartarus. See Virg. JEn. 1. vi. 618. 

2 While we our course.'] Solcando noi per quella morta gora. 

Frezzi, II Quadrir. lib. ii. cap. 7. 



(40) THE VISION. 31—64. 

One drench'd in mire before me came, and -■;.: • : 
" TTho art thou, that thus eomest ere thine hour?" 
I answer d : " Though I come. I tarry not : 

But who art thou, that art become so foul?" 

" One. as thou seest. who mourn :" he straight replied. 

To which I thus: "In mourning and in woe. 
Curst spirit ! tarry thou. I know thee well. 
E'en thus in filth disguised.*' Then streteh'd he forth 
Hands to the bark; whereof my teacher sage 
Aware, thrusting him back: "Away! down there 
To the other dogs !" then, with his arms my neck 
Encircling, kiss'd my cheek, and spake : "0 soul, 
Justly disdainful ! blest was she in whom 
Thou w ■;-.-;: conceived 1 . He in the world was one 
For arrogance noted: to his memory 
No virtue lends its lustre : even so 
Here is his shadow furious. There above. 
How many now hold themselves mighty kings. 
"Who here like swine shall wallow in the mire, 
Leaving behind them horrible dispraise." 

I then: "Master! him fain would I behold 
TThelni'd in these dregs, before we quit the lake." 

He thus : " Or ever to thy view the shore 
Be offer d. satisfied shall be that wish. 
"Which well deserves completion. "■ Scarce his words 
Were ended, when I saw the miry tribes 
Set on him with such violence, that yet 
For that render I thanks to God. and praise. 
"To Filippo Argenti 2 !'" cried they all: 
And on himself the moody Florentine 
Turn'd his avenging fangs. Him here we left. 
Nor speak I of him more. But on mine ear 
Sudden a sound of lamentation smote. 
Whereat mine eye unbarr'd I sent abroad. 

1 In whom 



Thou wast cm " " Che 'n fee s 'in :inse." Several of the commenta- 

tors haTe stumbled at this word, which, is the same as " enceinte" in French, 
and " inciens " in Latin. For many instances, in which it is thus used, see 
the notes on Boccaccio's Decameron, p. 101. in the Ginnti edition, 1573. 

2 Filippo Argenti .] Boccaccio tells ns, " he was a man remarkable for the 
large proportions and extraordinary vigour of his bodily frame, and the ex- 
treme waywardness and irascibility of his temper." Decani. G. ix. K". 8. 



65—94. HELL, Canto VIII. (41) 

And thus the good instructor : " Now, my son 
Draws near the city, that of Dis is named \ 
With its grave denizens, a mighty throng." 

I thus : " The minarets already, Sir ! 
There, certes, in the valley I descry, 
Gleaming vermilion, as if they from fire 
Had issued." He replied : " Eternal fire, 
That inward burns, shows them with ruddy flame 
Illumed ; as in this nether hell thou seest." 

We came within the fosses deep, that moat 
This region comfortless. The walls appear'd 
As they were framed of iron. We had made 
Wide circuit, ere a place we reach'd, where loud 
The mariner cried vehement : " Go forth : 
The entrance is here." Upon the gates I spied 
More than a thousand, who of old from heaven 
Were shower'd 2 . With ireful gestures, "Who is this," 
They cried, "that, without death first felt, goes through 
The regions of the dead ? " My sapient guide 
Made sign that he for secret parley wish'd ; 
Whereat their angry scorn abating, thus 
They spake : " Come thou alone ; and let him go, 
Who hath so hardily enter'd this realm. 
Alone return he by his witless way ; 
If well he know it, let him prove. For thee, 
Here shalt thou tarry, who through clime so dark 
Hast been his escort." Now bethink thee, reader ! 
What cheer was mine at sound of those curst words. 
I did believe I never should return. 

" my loved guide ! who more than seven times 3 



1 The city, that of Dis is named.'] So Ariosto, Orl. Fur. c. xl. st. 32 : 

Fatto era un stagno piu sicuro e brutto, 
Di quel che cinge la citta di Dite. 

2 From heaven 

Were shower'd.] Da ciel piovuti. 

Thus Frezzi: Li maladetti piovuti da cielo. II Quadr.lib. iv. cap. 4. 

Aud Pulci, in the passage cited in the note to C. xxi. 117. 3 Seven times.] 
The commentators, says Yenturi, perplex themselves with the inquiry what 
seven perils these were from which Dante had been delivered by Virgil. 
Reckoning the beasts in the first Canto as one of them, and adding Charon, 
Minos, Cerberus, Plutus, Phlegyas, and Filippo Argenti, as so many others, 
we shall have the number ; and if this be not satisfactory, we may suppose a 
determinate to have been put for an indeterminate number. 



the visr: »:— :u. 

security hast rendered me. and drawn 
From peril deep, whereto I stood exposed, 
Desert me not," I cried, "in this extreme. 
And, if our onward going be denied, 
Together trace we back our steps with speed-" 

My liege, who thither had conducted me, 
Bepik i : " Fear not : for of our passage none 
Hath power to disappoint ns, by snch high 
Authority permitted. But do thou 
Expect me here ; meanwhile, thy wearied spirit 
Comfort, and feed with kindly hope, assured 
I will not leave thee in this lower world/* 

This said, departs the sire benevolent, 
And quits me. Hesitating I remain 
At war, 'twixt will and will not 1 , in my thoughts. 

I could not hear what terms he offer'd them, 
But they conferr'd not long, for all at once 
Pellmell 2 rush" d back within. Closed were the gates, 
By those our adversaries, on the breast 
Of my liege lord : excluded, he returned 
To me with tardy steps. Upon the ground 
His eyes were bent and from his brow erased 
All confidence, while thus in sighs he spakf ; 
u Who hath denied me these abodes of woe ?* 
Then thus to me ; u That I am anger'd, think 
N J ground of terror : in this trial I 
Shall vanquish, use what arts they may within 
For hindrance. This their insolence, not new*, 
Erewhile at gate less secret they display*© 1 , 
Which still is without bolt ; upon its arch 

1 At war, 'twizt will and will not. - ] Che si, e no nel capo mi fan«m» 
Thus our Poet hi his eighth Canzone: 

Ch' il si, el no tntutto in Tostra mano 
Ha posto amore. 
And Boccaccio, Ninf . Fiesol. st. 233 : H si e il no nel capo gli contende. 

The words I have adopted as a translation, axe Shakspeare's, Measure for 
Measure, a. ii. s. 1 . HmcU.] A praam. « Certatim/* " A Fam." 

I had before translated " To trial; " and have to thank Mjt Garlyfe for de- 
tecting the error. ■ This their insolence, not new.'] Virgil assures our 
poet, that these evil gg iri| g had formerly shown the same insolence when our 
S ?ur descended into hell. They attempted to pre ve nt him from e nt er in g 
at the gate, over which Dante had read the fatal inscription. "That gate 
which sayi the Roman poet, " an angel had jnst passed, hy whose aid we 
shall overcome this opposition, and gain admittance into the city." 



125—123. HELL, Canto VIII. (43) 

Thou saw'st the deadly scroll : and even now, 
On this side of its entrance, down the steep, 
Passing the circles, unescorted, comes 
One whose strong might can open us this land." 



CANTO IX. 



ARGUMENT. 

After some hindrances, and having seen the hellish furies and other mon- 
sters, the Poet, by the help of an angel, enters the city of Dis, wherein he 
discovers that the heretics are punished in tombs burning with intense 
fire : and he, together with Virgil, passes onwards between the sepulchres 
and the walls of the city. 

The hue *, which coward dread on my pale cheeks 
Imprinted when I saw my guide turn back, 
Chased that from his which newly they had worn, 
And inwardly restrain'd it. He, as one 
Who listens, stood attentive : for his eye 
Not far could lead him through the sable air, 
And the thick-gathering cloud. " It yet behoves 
We win this fight ;" thus he began : "if not, 
Such aid to us is offer'd.— Oh ! how long 
Me seems it, ere the promised help arrive." 

I noted, how the sequel of his words 
Cloked their beginning ; for the last he spake 
Agreed not with the first. But not the less 
My fear was at his saying ; sith I drew 
To import worse, perchance, than that he held, 
His mutilated speech. " Doth ever any 
Into this rueful concave's extreme depth 
Descend, out of the first degree, whose pain 
Is deprivation merely of sweet hope ? " 

Thus I inquiring. " Rarely," he replied, 
" It chances, that among us any makes 
This journey, which I wend. Erewhile, 'tis true, 
Once came I here, beneath, conjured by fell 
Erictho 2 , sorceress, who compell'd the shades 

1 The htie.~\ Virgil, perceiving that Dante was pale with fear, restrained 
those outward tokens of displeasure which his own countenance had betrayed, 

2 Erictho.] Erictho, a Thessalian sorceress, according to Lucan, Phar- 



(44) THE VISION. 25—49. 

Back to their bodies. No long space my flesh 

Was naked of me *, when within these walls 

She made me enter, to draw forth a spirit 

From out of Judas' circle. Lowest place 

Is that of all, obscurest, and removed 

Furthest from heaven's all-circling orb. The road 

Full well I know : thou therefore rest secure. 

That lake, the noisome stench exhaling, round 

The city of grief encompasses, which now 

We may not enter without rage." Yet more 

He added : but I hold it not in mind, 

For that mine eye toward the lofty tower 

Had drawn me wholly, to its burning top ; 

Where, in an instant, I beheld uprisen 

At once three hellish furies stain'd with blood : 

In limb and motion feminine they seem'd ; 

Around them greenest hydras twisting roll'd 

Their volumes ; adders and cerastes 2 crept 

Instead of hair, and their fierce temples bound. 

He, knowing well the miserable hags 
Who tend the queen of endless woe, thus spake : 
" Mark thou each dire Erynnis. To the left, 
This is Megaera ; on the right hand, she 
Who wails, Alecto ; and Tisiphone 
I' th' midst.'' This said, in silence he remain'd. 

sal. 1. vi. was employed by Sextus, son of Pompey the Great, to conjure up a 
spirit, who should inform him of the issue of the civil wars between his fa- 
ther and Caesar. 

1 No long space my flesh 

Was naked of me.] 

Quae corpus complexa animae tarn fortis inane. Ovid. Met. 1. xiii. fab. 2. 
Dante appears to have fallen into an anachronism. Virgil's death did not 
happen till long after this period. But Lombardi shows, in opposition to the 
other commentators, that the anachronism is only apparent. Erictho might 
well have survived the battle of Pharsalia long enough to be employed in 
her magical practices at the time of Virgil's decease. 
2 Adders and cerastes.'] 

Vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis. Virg. 2En. 1. vi. 281. 

spinaque vagi torquente cerastae 

****** 

* * * et torrida dipsas 

Et gravis in geminum vergens caput amphisbaena. 

Lucan. Pharsal. 1. ix. 719. 
So Milton : Scorpion and asp, and amphisbaena dire, 
Cerastes horn'd, hydrus and elops drear, 
And dipsas. P. L. b. x. 524. 



50—74. HELL, Canto IX. (45) 

Their breast they each one clawing tore ; themselves 

Smote with their palms, and such thrill clamour raised, 

That to the bard I clung, suspicion-bound. 

" Hasten Medusa : so to adamant 

Him shall we change ;" all looking down exclaim'd : 

" E'en when by Theseus' might assail'd, we took 

No ill revenge." " Turn thyself round, and keep 

Thy countenance hid ; for if the Gorgon dire 

Be shown, and thou shouldst view it, thy return 

Upwards would be for ever lost." This said, 

Himself, my gentle master, turn'd me round ; 

Nor trusted he my hands, but with his own 

He also hid me. Ye of intellect 

Sound and entire, mark well the lore l conceal'd 

Under close texture of the mystic strain. 

And now there came o'er the perturbed waves 
Loud-crashing, terrible, a sound that made 
Either shore tremble, as if of a wind 2 
Impetuous, from conflicting vapours sprung, 
That 'gainst some forest driving all his might, 
Plucks off the branches, beats them down, and hurls 
Afar 3 ; then, onward passing, proudly sweeps 
His whirlwind rage, while beasts and shepherds fly. 

Mine eyes he loosed, and spake : " And now direct 
Thy visual nerve along that ancient foam, 

1 TJie lore.] The Poet probably intends to call the reader's attention to 
the allegorical and mystic sense of the present Canto, and not, as Yentiiri 
supposes, to that of the whole work. Landino supposes this hidden meaning 
to be, that in the case of those vices which proceed from incontinence and 
intemperance, reason, which is figured under the person of Virgil, with the 
ordinary grace of God, may be a sufficient safeguard ; but that in the in- 
stance of more heinous crimes, such as those we shall hereafter see punished, 
a special grace, represented by the angel, is requisite for our defence. 

2 A wind.] Imitated by Bemi : 

Com' un gruppo di vento in la marina 

L' onde, e le nayi sottosopra caccia, 

Ed in terra con furia repentina 

Gli arbori abbatte, sveglie, sfronda e straccia. 

Smarriti fuggon i lavoratori 

E per le serve le fiere e' pastori. Orl. Inn. lib. i. c. ii. st. 6. 

3 Afar.'] " Porta i fiori," " carries away the blossoms," is the common 
reading. " Porta fuori," which is the right reading, adopted by Lombardi 
in his edition from the Nidobeatina, for which he claims it exclusively, I had 
also seen in Landino's edition of 1484, and adopted from thence, long before 
it was my chance to meet with Lombardi. 



(4$) THE VISION. 75—107. 

There, thickest where the smoke ascends." As frogs 

Before their foe the serpent, through the wave 

Ply swiftly all. till at the ground each one 

Lies on a heap ; more than a thousand spirits 

Destroy'd, so saw I fleeing before one 

Who pass'd with unwet feet the Stygian sound. 

He, from his face removing the gross air, 

Oft his left hand forth stretch'd, and seem'd alone 

By that annoyance wearied. I perceived 

That he was sent from heaven ; and to my guide 

Turn'd me, who signal made, that I should stand 

Quiet, and bend to him. Ah me ! how full 

Of noble anger seem'd he. To the gate 

He came, and with his wand L touch' d it. whereat 

Open without impediment it flew. 

" Outcasts of heaven ! O abject race, and scorn'd !" 
Began he, on the horrid grunsel standing, 
u Whence doth this wild excess of insolence 
Lodge in you ? wherefore kick you 'gainst that will 
Ne'er frustrate of its end, and which so oft 
Hath laid on you enforcement of your pangs ? 
What profits, at the fates to butt the horn ? 
Your Cerberus 2 , if ye remember, hence 
Bears still, peel'd of their hair, his throat and maw." 

This said, he turn'd back o'er the filthy way, 
And syllable to us spake none ; but wore 
The semblance of a man by other care 
Beset, and keenly prest, than thought of him 
Who in his presence stands. Then we our steps 
Toward that territory moved, secure 
After the hallo w'd words. We, unopposed, 
There enter'd ; and, my mind eager to learn 
What state a fortress like to that might hold, 

1 With his ica?id.~\ 

She with, her rod did softly smite the raile, 

Which straight flew ope. Spenser, F. Q. b. iv. c. iii. st. 46. 

2 Your Cerberus.'] Cerberus is feigned to have been dragged by Hercules, 
bound with a threefold chain, of which, says the angel, he still bears the 
marks. Lombardi blames the other interpreters for having supposed that 
the angel attributes this exploit to Hercules, a fabulous hero, rather than to 
our Saviour. It would seem as if the good father had forgotten that Cer- 
berus is himself no less a creature of the imagination than the hero who en- 
countered him. 



108—131. HELL, Canto IX. (47) 

I, soon as enter'd, throw mine eye around, 
And see, on every part, wide-stretching space, 
Replete with bitter pain and torment ill. 

As where Rhone stagnates on the plains of Aries 1 , 
Or as at Pola 2 , near Quarnaro's gulf, 
That closes Italy and laves her bounds, 
The place is all thick spread with sepulchres ; 
So was it here, save what in horror here 
ExcelTd : for 'midst the graves were scatter'd flames, 
Wherewith intensely all throughout they burn'd 3 , 
That iron for no craft there hotter needs. 

Their lids all hung suspended ; and beneath, 
. From them forth issued lamentable moans, 
Such as the sad and tortured well might raise. 

I thus : " Master ! say who are these, interr'd 
Within these vaults, of whom distinct we hear 
The dolorous sighs." He answer thus return'd : 
" The arch-heretics are here, accompanied 
By every sect their followers ; and much more, 
Than thou believest, the tombs are freighted : like 
With like is buried ; and the monuments 
Are different in degrees of heat." This said, 
He to the right hand turning, on we pass'd 
Betwixt the afflicted and the ramparts high. 

1 The plains of Aries.] In Provence. See Ariosto, Orl. Fur. c. xxxix. 
st. 72 : 

Fu da ogni parte in quest' ultima guerra 

(Benche la cosa non fu ugual divisa, 

Ch' assai piu andar dei Saracin sotterra 

Per man di Bradamante e di Marnsa) 

Se ne vede ancor segno in quella terra, 

Che presso ad Arli, ove il Rodano stagna, 

Piena di sepolture e la campagna. 
These sepulchres are mentioned in the Life of Charlemagne, which goes 
under the name of Archbishop Turpin, cap. 28. and 30. and by Fazio degli 
Uberti, Dittamondo, L. iv. cap. xxi. 2 At Pola.] A city of Istria, 

situated near the gulf of Quarnaro, in the Adriatic sea. 3 They burn'd.] 
Mr. Darley observes, that in the Incantation of Hervor (v. Northern An- 
tiquities, vol. ii.) the spirit of Angantyr lies in a tomb " all on fire." 



THE VISION. 1—23. 

CANTO X. 



V -.' - - - - - 



Dante, having obtained permission £on his gold 
Faiinata degl Dl ati and CavaSeamte Cavaleani 



]S«j^v bp & se:re: ::a:b~:.T ~e pr<: :eeb. 
Ber^een the vrills. :_;.: i_rz: :be r-g::i ::.:: 
Ana ta.e loriaaeiite :: sees : n~ master zltst., 
I :1c se bebiiid Lis steps. "VirTue supreme ! " 
I ibus began : "■-_:; tbrcugb :bese amide orbs 
I:; cbreuifleaas: nic. even - mm — ilbsi : 
Speak :b:".:. ni saris fv mp vrisb. 2b: 7 :b;se. 



Fmm Jisapbammmm 

Tue cemetery on this p 

W::h Epicurus. :.b bis 

^rnm mm tbe ': : m ma 
Here Tberetcre saristaa 

WPieb :b : - btmmudbt ; 
" I keep not, guide bel 

v _-.-<-■ —m ( "- c ~ ~~ mnr v 



24—54. HELL, Canto X. (49) 

Alive art passing, so discreet of speech : 

Here, please thee, stay awhile. Thy utterance 

Declares the place of thy nativity 

To be that noble land, with which perchance 

I too severely dealt." Sudden that sound 

Forth issued from a vault, whereat, in fear, 

I somewhat closer to my leader's side 

Approaching, he thus spake : " What dost thou ? Turn : 

Lo ! Farinata ! there, who hath himself 

Uplifted : from his girdle upwards, all 

Exposed, behold him." On his face was mine 

Already fix'd : his breast and forehead there 

Erecting, seem'd as in high scorn he held 

E'en hell. Between the sepulchres, to him 

My guide thrust me, with fearless hands and prompt ; 

This warning added : " See thy words be clear." 

He, soon as there I stood at the tomb's foot, 
Eyed me a space ; then in disdainful mood 
Address'd me : " Say what ancestors were thine." 

I, willing to obey him, straight reveal'd 
The whole, nor kept back aught : whence he, his brow 
Somewhat uplifting, cried : " Fiercely were they 
Adverse to me, my party, and the blood 
From whence I sprang : twice 2 , therefore, I abroad 
Scatter'd them." " Though driven out, yet they each 
From all parts," answer'd I, " return'd ; an art [time 
Which yours have shown they are not skill'd to learn." 

Then, peering forth from the unclosed jaw, 
Rose from his side a shade 3 , high as the chin, 
Leaning, methought, upon its knees upraised. 
It look'd around, as eager to explore 

1 Farinata.] Farinata degli Uberti, a noble Florentine, was the leader 
of the GhibeHine faction, when they obtained a signal victory over the 
Guelfi. at Montaperto, near the river Arbia. Macchiavelli calls him " a 
man of exalted sonl, and great military talents." Hist, of Flor. b. ii. His 
grandson, Bonifacio, or, as he is commonly called, Fazio degli Uberti, wrote a 
poem, entitled the Dittamondo, in imitation of Dante. I shall have frequent 
occasion to refer to it throughout these notes. At the conclusion of cap. 27, 
1. ii. he makes mention of his ancestor Farinata. See note * to Life of Dante, 
p. xxvi. 2 Tivice.] The first time in 1248, when they were driven out by 
Frederick the Second. See G. Yillani, lib. vi. c. xxxiv. ; and the second time 
in 1260. See note to v. 83. 3 A shade.] The spirit of Cavalcante Ca- 
yalcanti, a noble Florentine, of the Guelph party. 



(50) THE VISION. 55—63. 

If there were other with me ; but perceiving 

That fond imagination quench'd, with tears 

Thus spake : " If thou through this blind prison go'st, 

Led by thy lofty genius and profound, 

Where is my son l ? and wherefore not with thee ? " 

I straight replied : " Not of myself I come ; 
By him, who there expects me, through this clime 
Conducted, whom perchance Guido thy son 
Had in contempt 2 ." Already had his words 

1 My son.'] Guido, the son of Cavalcante Cavalcanti ; "he whom I call 
the first of my friends, " says Dante in his Vita Nuova, where the com- 
mencement of their friendship is related. From the character given of 
him hy contemporary writers, his temper was well formed to assimilate 
with that of our Poet. " He was/' according to G. Villani, lib. viii. c. xli. 
" of a philosophical and elegant mind, if he had not been too delicate and 
fastidious." And Dino Compagni terms him " a young and noble knight, 
brave and courteous, but of a lofty, scornful spirit, much addicted to solitude 
and study." Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script, t. 9. lib. i. p. 481. He died, either 
in exile at Serrazana, or soon after his return to Florence, December 1300, 
during the spring of which year the action of this poem is supposed to be 
passing. 

2 Guido thy son 

Had in contempt.] Guido Cavalcanti, being more given to philosophy 
than poetry, was perhaps no great admirer of Virgil. Some poetical com- 
positions by Guido are, however, still extant ; and his reputation for skill in 
the art was such as to eclipse that of his predecessor and namesake Guido 
Guinicelli ; as we shall see in the Purgatory, Canto xi. in the notes to which 
the reader will find specimens of the poems that have been lef^ by each of these 
writers. His " Canzone sopra il Terreno Amore" was thought worthy of 
being illustrated by numerous and ample commentaries. Crescimbeni, 1st, 
della Volg. Poes. lib. v. Our author addressed him in a playful sonnet, of 
which the following spirited translation is found in the notes to Hayley's 
Essay on Epic Poetry. Ep. iii. : 

Henry ! I wish that you, and Charles, and I, 

By some sweet spell within a bark were placed, 

A gallant bark with magic virtue graced, 

Swift at our will with every wind to fly ; 
So that no changes of the shifting sky, 

No stormy terrors of the watery waste, 

Might bar our course, but heighten still our taste 

Of sprightly joy, and of our social tie : 
Then that my Lucy, Lucy fair and free, 

"With those soft nymphs, on whom your souls are bent, 

The kind magician might to us convey, 
To talk of love throughout the live-long day ; 

And that each fair might be as well content, 

As I in truth believe our hearts would be. 
The two friends, here called Henry and Charles, are, in the original, 
Guido and Lapo, concerning the latter of whom see the Life of Dante pre- 
fixed : and Lucy is Monna Bice. A more literal version of the sonnet may 
be found in the " Canzoniere of Dante, translated by Charles Lyell, Esq." 
8vo. Lond. 1835. p. 407. 



64—83. HELL, Canto X. (51) 

And mode of punishment read me his name, 

"Whence I so fully answer'd. He at once 

Exclaim'd, up starting, " How ! said'st thou, he had 1 ? 

No longer lives he ? Strikes not on his eye 

The blessed daylight ?" Then, of some delay 

I made ere my reply, aware, down fell 

Supine, nor after forth appear'd he more. 

Meanwhile the other, great of soul, near whom 
I yet was station'd, changed not countenance stern, 
Nor moved the neck, nor bent his ribbed side. 
" And if," continuing the first discourse, 
" They in this art," he cried, " small skill have shown ; 
That doth torment me more e'en than this bed. 
But not yet fifty times 2 shall be relumed 
Her aspect, who reigns here queen of this realm 3 , 
Ere thou shalt know the full weight of that art. 
So to the pleasant world mayst thou return 4 , 
As thou shalt tell me why, in all their laws, 
Against my kin this people is so fell." 

" The slaughter 5 and great havoc," I replied, 

1 Said'st thou, he had?] In JEschylus, the shade of Darius is represented 
as inquiring with similar anxiety after the fate of his son Xerxes. 

Atossa. Moi/aoa 61 Etpfyiv ip^ixov (pacriv ov iroWtov yutTa— 
Darius. IIws oe 6?/ Kal irol teXevtcLv, eo-tl t/s o~uiTi]pia ; 

IIEP2AI. 741. Blomfield's Edit. 
Atossa. Xerxes astonish'd, desolate, alone — 
Ghost of Dar. How will this end ? Nay, pause not. Is he safe ? 

The Persia?is. Potter's Translation. 

2 Not yet fifty times.] " Not fifty months shall be passed, before thou 
shalt learn, by woeful experience, the difficulty of returning from banishment 
to thy native city." 3 Queen of this realm.] The moon, one of whose 
titles in heathen mythology, was Proserpine, queen of the shades below. 

4 So to the pleasant world tnayst tlwu return.] 

E se tu mai nel dolce mondo reggi. 

Lombardi would construe this : " And if thou ever remain in the pleasant 
world." His chief reasons for thus departing from the common interpret- 
ation, are, first that " se " in the sense of "so" cannot be followed by 
" mai," any more than in Latin " sic " can be followed by " unquam;" and 
next, that " reggi " is too unlike " riedi " to be put for it. A more intimate 
acquaintance with the early- Florentine writers would have taught him that 
" mai" is used in other senses than those which " unquam " appears to have 
had, particularly in that of "pur," "yet;" as may be seen in the notes to 
the Decameron, p. 43. Ed. Giunti, 1573 ; and that the old writers both of 
prose and verse changed " riedo " into "reggio," as of " fiedo " they made 
" feggio." Inf. c. xv, v. 39. and c. xvii. v. 75. See page 98 of the same 
notes to the Decameron, where a poet before Dante's time is said to have 
translated " Redeunt flores," " Reggiono i fiori." 5 The slaughter.] " By 
means of Farinata degli Uberti, the Guelfi were conquered by the army of 

E 2 



(52) THE VISION. 84—98. 

" That colour'd Arbia's flood with crimson stain — 
To these impute, that in our hallow'd dome 
Such orisons 1 ascend." Sighing he shook 
The head, then thus resumed : " In that affraj 
I stood not singly, nor, without just cause, 
Assuredly, should with the rest have stirr'd ; 
But singly there I stood 2 , when, by consent 
Of all, Florence had to the ground been razed, 
The one who openly forbade the deed." 

" So may thy lineage 3 find at last repose," 
I thus adjured him, " as thou solve this knot, 
"Which now involves my mind. If right I hear, 
Ye seem to view beforehand that which time 
Leads with him, of the present uninform'd." 

" We view 4 , as one who hath an evil sight," 

king Manfredi, near the river Arbia, with so great a slaughter, that those 
who escaped from that defeat took refuge, not in Florence, which city they 
considered as lost to them, but in Lucca." Maechiavelli, Hist, of Flor. b. 
ii. and G. Villani, lib. Ti. c. lxxx. and lxxxi. 1 Such orisons.'] This ap- 

pears to allude to certain prayers which were offered iip in the churches of 
Florence, for deliverance from the hostile attempts of the Uberti: or, it may 
be, that the public councils being held in churches, the speeches delivered in 
them against the Uberti are termed " orisons," or prayers. a Singly there 
I stood.'] Guido Novello assembled a council of the Ghibellini at Empoli ; 
where it was agreed by all, that, in order to maintain the ascendancy of the 
Ghibelline party in Tuscany, it was necessary to destroy Florence, which 
could serve only (the people of that city being Guelfi) to enable the party 
attached to the church to recover its strength. This cruel sentence, passed 
upon so noble a city, met with no opposition from any of its citizens or 
friends, except Farinata degli Uberti, who openly and without reserve for- 
bade the measure ; affirming, that he had endured so many hardships, and 
encountered so many dangers, with no other view than that of being able to 
pass his days in his own country. Macchiavelli, Hist, of Flor. b. fe 

3 So may thy lineage.] Deh se riposi mai vostra semenza. 

Here Lombardi is again mistaken, as at v. 80, above. Let me take this 
occasion to apprise the reader of Italian poetry, that one not well versed in it is 
very apt to misapprehend the word " se," as I think Cowper has done in trans- 
lating Milton's Italian verses. A good instance of the different meanings, 
in which it is used, is afforded in the following lines by Bernardo Capello : 
E tu, che dolcemente i flori e 1' erba 
Con lieve corso mormorando bagni, 
Tranquillo flume di vaghezza pieno ; 
Se '1 cielo al mar si chiaro t' accompagni ; 
Se punto di pietade in te si serba : 
Le mie lagrime accogli entro al tuo seno. 
Here the first " se" signifies " so," and the second "if." 

4 We view.] i ' The departed spirits know things past and to come ; yet 
are ignorant of things present. Agamemnon foretels what should happen 
unto Ulysses, yet ignorantly inquires what is become of his own son." Brown 
on TJrne Burial. Ch. iv. 



99—125. HELL, Canto X. (53) 

He answer'd, " plainly, objects far remote ; 
So much of his large splendour yet imparts 
The Almighty Euler : but when they approach, 
Or actually exist, our intellect 
Then wholly fails ; nor of your human state, 
Except what others bring us, know we aught. 
Hence therefore mayst thou understand, that all 
Our knowledge in that instant shall expire, 
"When on futurity the portals close." 

Then conscious of my fault 1 , and by remorse 
Smitten, I added thus : " Xow shalt thou say 
To him there falleu, that his offspring still 
Is to the living join'd ; and bid him know, 
That if from answer, silent, I abstain'd, 
'Twas that my thought was occupied, intent 
Upon that error, which thy help hath solved." 

But now my master summoning me back 
I heard, and with more eager haste besought 
The spirit to inform me, who with him 
Partook his lot. He answer thus return'd : 
" More than a thousand with me here are laid. 
Within is Frederick 2 , second of that name, 
And the Lord Cardinal 3 ; and of the rest 
I speak not." He, this said, from sight withdrew. 
But I my steps toward the ancient bard 
Reverting, ruminated on the words 
Betokening me such ill. Onward he moved, 



1 My fault.'] Dante felt remorse for not having returned an immediate 
answer to the inquiry of Cavalcante, from which delay he was led to believe 
that his son Guido was no longer living. 2 Frederick.'] The Emperor 
Frederick the Second, who died in 1250." See notes to Canto xiii. 3 The 
Lord Cardinal.] Ottaviano Ubaldini, a Florentine, made cardinal in 1245, 
and deceased about 1273. On account of his great influence, he was gener- 
ally known by the appellation of " the Cardinal." It is reported of him, 
that he declared, if there were any such thing as a human soul, he had lost 
his for the Ghibellini. " I know not," says Tiraboschi, " whether it is on 
sufficient grounds that Crescimbeni numbers among the poets of this age 
the Cardinal Uttaviano, or Ottaviano degli Ubaldini 7 a Florentine, archdea- 
con and procurator of the church of Bologna, afterwards made Cardinal by 
Innocent IV. in 1245, and employed in the most important public affairs, 
wherein, however, he showed himself, more than became his character, a 
favourer of the Ghibellines. He died, not in the year 1272, as Ciaconio and 
other writers have reported, but at soonest after the July of 1273, at which 
time he was in Mugello with Pope Gregory X." Tiraboschi Delia Poes* 
It. Mr. Mathias's Edit. t. i. p. 140. 



(54) THE VISION. 126—138. 

And thus, in going, question'd : " Whence the amaze 
That holds thy senses wrapt ? " I satisfied 
The inquiry, and the sage enjoin'd me straight : 
" Let thy safe memory store what thou hast heard 
To thee importing harm ; and note thou this," 
With his raised finger bidding me take heed, 
" When thou shalt stand before her gracious beam J , 
Whose bright eye all surveys, she of thy life 
The future tenour will to thee unfold." 

Forthwith he to the left hand turn'd his feet : 
We left the wall, and towards the middle space 
Went by a path that to a valley strikes, 
Which e'en thus high exhaled its noisome steam. 



CANTO XL 



ARGUMENT. 

Dante arrives at the verge of a rocky precipice which encloses the seventh 
circle, where he sees the sepulchre of Anastasius the Heretic ; behind the 
lid of which pausing a little, to make himself capable by degrees of en- 
during the fetid smell that steamed upward from the abyss, he is instructed 
by Virgil concerning the manner in which the three following circles are 
disposed, and what description of sinners is punished in each. He then 
inquires the reason why the carnal, the gluttonous, the avaricious and 
prodigal, the wrathful and gloomy, suffer not their punishments within 
the city of Dis. He next asks how the crime of usury is an offence against 
God ; and at length the two Poets go towards the place from whence a 
passage leads down to the seventh circle. 

Upon the utmost verge of a high bank, 

By craggy rocks environ'd round, we came, 

Where woes beneath, more cruel yet, were stow'd : 

And here, to shun the horrible excess 

Of fetid exhalation upward cast 

From the profound abyss, behind the lid 

Of a great monument we stood retired, 

Whereon this scroll I mark'd : " I have in charge 

Pope Anastasius 2 , whom Photinus drew 

1 Her gracious beam.] Beatrice. 

2 Pope Anastasius.] The commentators are not agreed concerning the 
person who is here mentioned as a follower of the heretical Photinus. By 
some he is supposed to have been Anastasius the Second ; by others, the 
Fourth of that name ; while a third set, jealous of the integrity of the papal 



10—43. HELL, Canto XI. (55) 

From the right path." — " Ere our descent, behoves 
We make delay, that somewhat first the sense, 
To the dire breath accustom'd, afterward 
Regard it not." My master thus ; to whom 
Answering I spake : " Some compensation find, 
That the time pass not wholly lost." He then : 
" Lo ! how my thoughts e'en to thy wishes tend. 
My son l ! within these rocks," he thus began, 
" Are three close circles in gradation placed, 
As these which now thou leavest. Each one is full 
Of spirits accurst ; but that the sight alone 
Hereafter may suffice thee, listen how 
And for what cause in durance they abide. 
" Of all malicious act abhorr'd in heaven, 
The end is injury ; and all such end 
Either by force or fraud 2 works other's woe. 
But fraud, because of man peculiar evil, 
To God is more displeasing ; and beneath, 
The fraudulent are therefore doom'd to endure 
Severer pang. The violent occupy 
All the first circle ; and because, to force, 
Three persons are obnoxious, in three rounds, 
Each within other separate, is it framed. 
To God, his neighbour, and himself, by man 
Force may be offer'd ; to himself I say, 
And his possessions, as thou soon shalt hear 
At full. Death, violent death, and painful wounds 
Upon his neighbour he inflicts ; and wastes, 
By devastation, pillage, and the flames, 
His substance. Slayers, and each one that smites 
In malice, plunderers, and all robbers, hence 
The torment undergo of the first round, 
In different herds. Man can do violence 
To himself and his own blessings : and for this, 

faith, contend that our Poet has confounded him with Anastasius I. Emperor 
of the East. Fazio degli Uberti, like oiir author, makes him a pope : 

Anastasio papa in quel tempo era, 

Di Fotin yago a mal grado de sui. Dittamondo, 1. ii. cap. xiv. 

1 My son.] The remainder of the present Canto maybe considered as a 

syllabus of the whole of this part of the poem. 2 Either by force or fraud.] 

" Cum autem duobus modis, id est, aut yi, aut fraude, fiat injuria . . utrumque 

homini alienissimum ; sed fraus odio dignaniajore." Cic. de Off. lib. i. c. xiii. 



(56) THE VISION. 44—78. 

He, in the second round must aye deplore 
With unavailing penitence his crime, 
Whoe'er deprives himself of life and light, 
In reckless lavishment his talent wastes, 
And sorrows l there where he should dwell in joy. 
To God may force be offer' d, in the heart 
Denying and blaspheming his high power, 
And Nature with her kindly law contemning. 
And thence the inmost round marks with its seal 
Sodom, and Cahors 2 , and all such as speak 
Contemptuously of the Godhead in their hearts. 

" Fraud, that in every conscience leaves a sting, 
May be by man employ' d on one, whose trust 
He wins, or on another who withholds 
Strict confidence. Seems as the latter way 
Broke but the bond of love which Nature makes. 
Whence in the second circle have their nest, 
Dissimulation, witchcraft, flatteries, 
Theft, falsehood, simony, all who seduce 
To lust, or set their honesty at pawn, 
With such vile scum as these. The other way 
Forgets both Nature's general love, and that 
Which thereto added afterward gives birth 
To special faith. Whence in the lesser circle, 
Point of the universe, dread seat of Dis, 
The traitor is eternally consumed." 

I thus : " Instructor, clearly thy discourse 
Proceeds, distinguishing the hideous chasm 
And its inhabitants with skill exact. 
But tell me this : they of the dull, fat pool, 
Whom the rain beats, or whom the tempest drives, 
Or who with tongues so fierce conflicting meet, 
Wherefore within the city fire-illumed 
Are not these punish'd, if God's wrath be on them ? 
And if it be not, wherefore in such guise 

1 And sorrotos.] This fine moral, that not to enjoy our being is to he 
ungrateful to the Author of it, is well expressed in Spenser, F. Q. b. iv. c 
viii. st. 15. 

For he whose daies in wilful woe are worne, 

The grace of his Creator doth despise, 

That will not use his gifts for thankless nigardise. 

2 Cahors.] A city of Guienne, much frequented by usurers. 



79—108. HELL, Canto XI. (57) 

Are they condemn'd ? " He answer thus return'd : 
" Wherefore in dotage wanders thus thy mind, 
Not so accustoin'd ? or what other thoughts 
Possess it ? Dwell not in thy memory 
The words, wherein thy ethic page ! describes 
Three dispositions adverse to Heaven's will, 
Incontinence, malice, and mad brutishness, 
And how incontinence the least offends 
God, and least guilt incurs ? If well thou note 
This judgment, and remember who they are, 
"Without these walls to vain repentance doom'd, 
Thou shalt discern why they apart are placed 
From these fell spirits, and less wreakful pours 
Justice divine on them its vengeance down." 
" sun ! who healest all imperfect sight, 
Thou so content'st me, when thou solvest my doubt, 
That ignorance not less than knowledge charms. 
Yet somewhat turn thee back," I in these words 
Continued, " where thou said'st, that usury 
Offends celestial Goodness ; and this knot 
Perplex'd unravel." He thus made reply : 
" Philosophy, to an attentive ear, 
Clearly points out, not in one part alone, 
How imitative Nature takes her course 
From the celestial mind, and from its art : 
And where her laws 2 the Stagirite unfolds, 
Not many leaves scann'd o'er, observing well 
Thou shalt discover, that your art on her 
Obsequious follows, as the learner treads 
In his instructor's step ; so that your art 

1 Thy ethic page.] He refers to Aristotle's Ethics : " Meto: de TavTa \ek- 
Tsov,a\\i]v Troii]<TaixLvov<2 apyj)v,0Ti TGovTrepiTa ri6i) cpivKTcovrpia ia-Tivs'lci], 
KaKia, aKpaaia, $i]ol6ti}<s." Ethic. Xicomach. lib. vii. c. 1. "In the next 
place, entering on another division of the subject, let it be defined, that re- 
specting morals there are three sorts of things to be avoided, malice, incon- 
tinence, and brutishness/ ' 2 Her laics.] Aristotle's Physics. — " 'H 
tsX v1 1 M^ti-rat T V V 4 > v <rLV '" Arist. 3>Y2. AKP. lib. ii. c. 2. " Art imitates 

nature." See the Coltivazione of Alamanni, lib. i. 

l'arte umana 

Altro non e da dir ch' un dolce sprone, 

Un correger soave, un pio sostegno, 

Uno esperto imitar, comporre accorto 

Un sollecito attar con studio e'ngegno 

La cagion natural, 1' effetto, e Y opra. 



(58) THE VISION. 109—121, 

Deserves the name of second in descent 1 
From God. These two, if thou recal to mind 
Creation's holy book 2 , from the beginning 
Were the right source of life and excellence 
To human kind. But in another path 
The usurer walks ; and Nature in herself 
And in her follower thus he sets at nought, 
Placing elsewhere his hope 3 . But follow now 
My steps on forward journey bent ; for now 
The Pisces play with undulating glance 
Along the horizon, and the Wain 4 lies all 
O'er the north-west ; and onward there a space 
Is our steep passage down the rocky height." 



CANTO XII. 



ARGUMENT. 

Descending by a very rugged way into the seventh circle, where the violent 
are punished, Dante and his leader find it guarded by the Minotaur; 
whose fury being pacified by Virgil, they step downwards from crag to 
crag ; till, drawing near the bottom, they desciy a river of blood, wherein 
are tormented such as have committed violence against their neighbour. 
At these, when they strive to emerge from the blood, a troop of Centaurs, 
running along the side of the river, aim their arrows ; and three of their 
band opposing our travellers at the foot of the steep, Virgil prevails so far, 
that one consents to carry them both across the stream ; and on their 
passage, Dante is informed by him of the course of the river, and of those 
that are punished therein. 

The place, where to descend the precipice 
We came, was rough as Alp ; and on its verge 
Such object lay, as every eye would shun. 
As is that ruin, which Adice's stream 5 

1 Second in descent.'] Si che vostr' arte a Dio quasi e nipote. 
So Frezzi : — Giustizia fu da cielo, e di Dio e figlia, 

E ogni bona legge a Dio e nipote. II Quadrir. lib. iv. cap. 2. 

2 Creation's holy book.] Genesis, c. ii. v. 15 : " And the Lord God took 
the man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it, and to keep it." 
And, Genesis, c. iii. v. 19 : "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." 

3 Placing elsewhere his hope.] The usurer, trusting in the produce of 
his wealth lent out on usury, despises nature directly, because he does not 
avail himself of her means for maintaining or enriching himself; and indi- 
rectly, because he does not avail himself of the means which art, the follower 
and imitator of nature, would afford him for the same purposes. 

4 The Wain.] The constellation Bootes, or Charles's Wain. 

5 Adice's stream^] After a great deal having been said on the subject, it 



5—23. HELL, Canto XII. (59) 

On this side Trento struck, shouldering the wave, 

Or loosed by earthquake or for lack of prop ; 

For from the mountain's summit, whence it moved 

To the low level, so the headlong rock 

Is shiver' d, that some passage 1 it might give 

To him who from above would pass ; e'en such 

Into the chasm was that descent : and there 

At point of the disparted ridge lay stretch'd 

The infamy of Crete 2 , detested brood 

Of the feign'd heifer 3 : and at sight of us 

It gnaw'd itself, as one with rage distract. 

To him my guide exclaim' d : " Perchance thou deem'st 

The King of Athens 4 here, who, in the world 

Above, thy death contrived. Monster ! avaunt ! 

He comes not tutor'd by thy sister's art 5 , 

But to behold your torments is he come." 

Like to a bull 6 , that with impetuous spring 
Darts, at the moment when the fatal blow 
Hath struck him, but unable to proceed 



still appears very uncertain at what part of the river this fall of the mountain 
happened. x Some passage.] Lombardi erroneously, I think, understands 
by " alcuna via " "no passage ;" in which sense " alcuno " is certainly some- 
times used by some old writers, Monti, as usual, agrees with Lombardi. 
See note to c. iii. v. 40. 2 The infamy of Crete.'] The Minotaur. 

3 The feign'd heifer.] Pasiphae. " 4 Tile king of A thens.] Theseus, who 
was enabled by the instruction of Ariadne, the sister of the Minotaur, to de- 
stroy that monster. " Duca d'Atene." So Chaucer calls Theseus : 
Whilom, as olde stories tellen us, 

There was a duk, that highte Theseus. The Knighte's Tale. 
And Shakspeare : Happy be Theseus, our renowned Duke. 

Midsummer Night's Dream, a. i. s. 1. 

" This is in reality," observes Mr. Douce, " no misapplication of a modern 
title, as Mr. Stevens conceived, but a legitimate use of the word in its primi- 
tive Latin sense of leader, and so it is often used in the Bible. Shakspeare 
might have found Duke Theseus in the Book of Troy, or in Turberville's 
Ovid's Epistles. See the argument to that of Phaedra and Hippolytus." 
Donee's Illustrations of Shakspeare. 8vo. 1807. vol. i. p. 179. 

5 Thy sister's art.] Ariadne. 

6 Like to a bull.] 

'Qs <5' OTav 6%vu e^cou tt£\zkvv alamos <*W;f>, 
Ko\|ms ij-oTTititv Kepaujv (3oo<s aypavXoLO, 
'lva T&fxn <5td iracrav, 6 dk irpodopcbv koiTr^aiv. 

Homer. II. 1. xvii. 522. 
As when some vigorous youth with sharpen' d axe 
A pastured bullock smites behind the horns, 
And hews the muscle through ; he at the stroke 
Springs forth and falls. Coivper's Translation. 



(60) THE VISION. 24-56. 

Plunges on either side ; so saw I plunge 
The Minotaur ; whereat the sage exclaim' d: 
" Run to the passage ! while he storms, 'tis well 
That thou descend." Thus down our road we took 
Through those dilapidated crags, that oft 
Moved underneath m y feet, to weight l like theirs 
Unused. I pondering went, and thus he spake : 
" Perhaps thy thoughts are of this ruin'd steep, 
Guarded by the brute violence, which I 
Have vanquish'd now. Know then, that when I erst 
Hither descended to the nether hell, 
This rock was not yet fallen. But past doubt, 
(If well I mark) not long ere He arrived 2 , 
Who carried off from Dis the mighty spoil 
Of the highest circle, then through all its bounds 
Such trembling seized the deep concave and foul, 
I thought the universe was thrill'd with love, 
Whereby, there are who deem, the world hath oft 
Been into chaos turn'd 3 : and in that point, 
Here, and elsewhere, that old rock toppled down. 
But fix thine eyes beneath : the river of blood 4 
Approaches, in the which all those are steep'd, 
Who have by violence injured." blind lust ! 
foolish wrath ! who so dost goad us on 
In the brief life, and in the eternal then 
Thus miserably o'erwhelm us. I beheld 
An ample foss, that in a bow was bent, 
As circling all the plain ; for so my guide 
Had told. Between it and the rampart's base, 
On trail ran Centaurs, with keen arrows arm'd, 
As to the chase they on the earth were wont. 
At seeing us descend they each one stood ; 
And issuing from the troop, three sped with bows 

1 To weight.'] Incumbent on the dusky air 

That felt unusual weight. * Milton, P. L. b. i. 227. 

2 He arrived.'] Our Saviour, who, according to Dante, when he ascended 
from hell, carried with him the souls of the Patriarchs, and of other just 
men, out of the first circle. See Canto ix. 3 Been into chaos turn'd.] 
This opinion is attributed to Empedocles. i The river of blood.] Deinde 
vidi locum (Qu. lacum ?) magnum totuni, ut niihi videbatur, plenum 
sanguine. Sed dixit mihi Apostolus, sed non sanguis, sed ignis est ad con- 
cremandos homicidas, et odiosos deputatus. Hanc tamen similitudinem 
propter sanguinis effusionem retinet. Alberici Visio, § 7. 



57—89. HELL, Canto XII. (61) 

And missile weapons chosen first ; of whom 
One cried from far : " Say, to what pain ye come 
Condemn'd, who down this steep have journey'd. Speak 
From whence ye stand, or else the bow I draw." 

To whom my guide : " Our answer shall be made 
To Chiron, there, when nearer him we come. 
Ill was thy mind, thus ever quick and rash." 
Then me he touch'd, and spake : " Nessus is this, 
Who for the fair Dei'anira died, 
And wrought himself revenge l for his own fate. 
He in the midst, that on his breast looks down, 
Is the great Chiron who Achilles nursed ; 
That other, Pholus, prone to wrath." Around 
The foss these go by thousands, aiming shafts 
At whatsoever spirit dares emerge 2 
From out the blood, more than his guilt allows. 

We to those beasts, that rapid strode along, 
Drew near ; when Chiron took an arrow forth, 
And with the notch push'd back his shaggy beard 
To the cheek-bone, then, his great mouth to view 
Exposing, to his fellows thus exclaim'd : 
" Are ye aware, that he who comes behind 
Moves what he touches ? The feet of the dead 
Are not so wont." My trusty guide, who now 
Stood near his breast, where the two natures join, 
Thus made reply : " He is indeed alive, 
And solitary so must needs by me 
Be shown the gloomy vale, thereto induced 
By strict necessity, not by delight. 
She left her joyful harpings in the sky, 
Who this new office to my care consign'd. 
He is no robber, no dark spirit I. 
But by that virtue, which empowers my step 

1 And icrought himself revenge.'] Nessus, when dying by the hand of 
Hercules, charged Dei'anira to preserve the gore from his wound ; for that 
if the affections of Hercules should at any time be estranged from her, it 
would act as a charm, and recal them. Dei'anira had occasion to try the 
experiment ; and the venom acting, as Nessus had intended, caused Her- 
cules to expire in torments. See the Trachiniee of Sophocles. 2 Emerge^ 
Multos in eis Tidi usque ad talos demergi, alios usque ad genua, vel femora, 
alios usque ad pectus juxta peccati yidi modum : alios vero qui majoris cri- 
minis noxa tenebantur in ipsis summitatibus supersedere conspexi. Alberici 
Visio, § 3. 



(62) THE VISION. 90—113. 

To tread so wild a path, grant us, I pray, 
One of thy band, whom we may trust secure, 
Who to the ford may lead us, and convey 
Across, him mounted on his back ; for he 
Is not a spirit that may walk the air." 

Then on his right breast turning, Chiron thus 
To Nessiis 1 spake: "Return, and be their guide. 
And if ye chance to cross another troop, 
Command them keep aloof." Onward we moved, 
The faithful escort by our side, along 
The border of the crimson -seething flood, 
Whence, from those steep'd within, loud shrieks arose. 

Some there I mark'd, as high as to their brow 
Immersed, of whom the mighty Centaur thus : 
" These are the souls of tyrants, who were given 
To blood and rapine. Here they wail aloud 
Their merciless wrongs. Here Alexander dwells, 
And Dionysius fell, who many a year 
Of woe wrought for fair Sicily. That brow, 
"WTiereon the hair so jetty clustering hangs, 
Is Azzolino 2 ; that with flaxen locks 
Obizzo 3 of Este, in the world destroyed 
By his foul step-son." To the bard revered 
I turn'd me round, and thus he spake: "Let him 

1 Nessiis.] Our Poet was probably induced, by the following line in Ovid, 
to assign to "Nessns the task of conducting them over the ford : 

Nessus adit rnembrisque Talens scitusque vadorum. Metam. 1. ix. 
And Ovid's authority was Sophocles, who says of this Centaur — 
"Os tov fiadvppovv iroTa/uidu JLvi]vov (3poToi)$ 
Mt<r0ou TropevE yspaiv outs iroixirifxoL^ 
Kco7rat9 ipiarcroju, ovte Xai(pB(TLV i/£o>s. Track. 570. 
He in his arms, across Evenus' stream 
Deep-flowing, bore the passenger for hire, 
Without or sail or billow-cleaving oar. 

2 Azzolino.] Azzolino, or Ezzolino di Romano, a most cruel tyrant in 
the Marca Trivigiana, Lord of Padua, Yicenza, Yerona, and Brescia, who 
died in 1260. His atrocities form the subject of a Latin tragedy, called Ec- 
cerinis, by Albertino Mussato, of Padua, the contemporary of Dante, and 
the most elegant writer of Latin verse of that age. See also the Paradise, 
Canto ix. Berni, Oii. Inn. lib. ii. c. xxv. st. 50. Ariosto, Orl. Fur. c. iii. 
st. 33. and Tassoni, Secchia Rapita, c. viii. st. 11. 3 Obizzo of Este.~] 
Marquis of Ferrara and of the Marca d' Ancona, was murdered by his own 
son (whom, for that most unnatural act, Dante calls his step-son) for the 
sake of the treasures which his rapacity had amassed. See Ariosto, Orl. 
Fur. c. iii. st. 32. He died in 1293, according to Gibbon, Ant. of the House 
of Brunswick, Posth. Works, v. ii. 4to. 



114—137. HELL, Canto XII. (63) 

Be to thee now first leader, me but next 

To him in rank." Then further on a space 

The Centaur paused, near some, who at the throat 

Were extant from the wave ; and, showing us 

A spirit by itself apart retired, 

Exclaim'cl : " He 1 in God's bosom smote the heart, 

Which yet is honour'd on the bank of Thames." 

A race I next espied who held the head, 
And even all the bust, above the stream. 
'Midst these I many a face remember'd well. 
Thus shallow more and more the blood became. 
So that at last it but imbrued the feet ; 
And there our passage lay athwart the foss. 

" As ever on this side the boiling wave 
Thou seest diminishing," the Centaur said, 
" So on the other, be thou well assured, 
It lower still and lower sinks its bed, 
Till in that part it re-uniting join, 
Where 'tis the lot of tyranny to mourn. 
There Heaven's stern justice lays chastising hand 
On Attila, who was the scourge of earth, 
On Sextus and on Pyrrhus 2 , and extracts 
Tears ever by the seething flood unlock'd 
From the Rinieri, of Corneto this, 



1 He.] " Henrie, the brother of this Edmund, and son to the foresaid 
king of Almaine, (Kichard, brother of Henry III. of England) as he re- 
turned from Affrike, where he had been with Prince Edward, was slain at 
Viterbo in Italy (whither he was come about business which he had to do 
with the Pope) by the hand of Guy de Montfort, the son of Simon de Mont- 
fort, Earl of Leicester, in revenge of the same Simon's death. The murther 
was committed afore the high altar, as the same Henrie kneeled there to 
hear divine service. " A. D. 1272. Holinshed's Chron. p. 27o. See also Giov. 
Villani, Hist. lib. vii. c. xl, where it is said " that the heart of Henry was 
put into a golden cup, and placed on a pillar at London bridge over the river 
Thames, for a memorial to the English of the said outrage." Lombard! 
suggests that " ancor si cola" in the text may mean, not that " the heart 
was still honoured," but that it was put into a perforated cup in order that 
the blood dripping from it might excite the spectators to revenge. This is 
surely too improbable. 

Un poco prima dove piu si stava 
Sicuro Enrico, il conte di Monforte 
L'alma del corpo col coltel gli cava. 

Fazio degli Uberti, Dittamondo, 1. ii. cap. xxix. 

2 On Sextus and on Pyrrhus.'] Sextus, either the son of Tarquin the 
Proud, or of Pompey the Great ; and Pyrrhus king of Epirus. 



(64) THE VISION. 135—14!'. 

Pazzo the other named \ who filPd the ways 
With violence and war." This said, he turn'd, 
And quitting us, alone repass'd the ford. 



canto xm. 



ARGUMENT 

StiD in the seventh circle. Dante enters its second compartment, which con- 
tains both, those who haxe done violence on their own persons and those 
who have violently consumed their goods ; Hie first changed into rough 
and knotted trees whereon the harpies build their nests, the latter chased 
and torn by black female mastiffs J^mong the former, Piero delle Vigne 
is one who tells him the cause of his haying committed suicide, and more- 
OTer in what manner the souls are transformed into those trunks. Of the 
latter crew, he recognises Lano, a Siennese, and Giacomo, a Padoan : uz i 
lastly. ;. Flirentiiie. ~:i: h^i. 'ltizlz ""'--. --"- ±;m Lis :^c ?:■:■:. sperms :: 
him of the calamities of his countrymen. 

Ere Nessus yet had reached the other bank, 

^'e enter'd on a forest -. where no track 

Of steps had worn a way. Not verdant there 

The foliage, but of dusky hue ; not light 

The boughs and tapering, but with knares defbrm'd 

Ajid matted thick : fruits there were none, but thorns 

Instead, with venom fill'd. Les- -l;;:p :„.. 

Less intricate the brakes, wherein abide 

Those animals, that hate the cultured fields, 

Betwixt Corneto and Cecina's stream 3 . 

Here the brute Harpies make their nest, the same 
TTho from the Strophades 4 the Trojan band 
Drove with dire boding of their future woe. 
Broad are their penn una \ ::' the human form 

1 The Rinieri, of Corneto this, 

Pazzo the other ?mnied. ] 

x vro noted marauders, by whose depredations the public ways in Italy 
were infested. The latter was of the noble family of Pazzi in Florence. 

s A forest.'] Inde in aliam vaUem nfmig terribilioreni deveni plenam 
subtilissiniis arboribus in modum hastarum sexaginta brachiorum longitudi- 
n habentibus, quorum omnium capita, ac si sndes acntissima erant, et 
spinosa. ATbervci Visio, § 4. Betwixt Corneto and Cecina/s stream.] 

A wild and woody tract of country, abounding in deer, goats, and wild 
boars. Cecilia is a river not far to the south of Leghorn; Corneto, a small 
city on the same coast, in the patrimony of the church. 
* The Strophades.] See V~irg. ^n. lib. iii. 210. 
5 Broad are their pensions.'] 

Yirginei Tolucrum yultus, fiedissama ventris 



15—48. HELL, Canto XIII. (65) 

Their neck and countenance, arm'cl with talons keen 
The feet, and the huge belly fledge with wings. 
These sit and wail on the drear mystic wood. 

The kind instructor in these words began : 
" Ere further thou proceed, know thou art now 
I' th' second round, and shalt be, till thou come 
Upon the horrid sand : look therefore well 
Around thee, and such things thou shalt behold, 
As would my speech discredit. " On all sides 
I heard sad plainings breathe, and none could see 
From whom they might have issued. In amaze 
Fast bound I stood. He, as it seem'd, believed 
That I had thought so many voices came 
From some amid those thickets close conceal'd, 
And thus his speech resumed : " If thou lop off 
A single twig from one of those ill plants, 
The thought thou hast conceived shall vanish quite." 

Thereat a little stretching forth my hand, 
From a great wilding gather'd I 1 a branch, .[me ?" 

And straight the trunk exclaim'd; "Why pluck'st thou 
Then, as the dark blood trickled down its side, 
These words it added : " Wherefore tear'st me thus ? 
Is there no touch of mercy in thy breast ? 
Men once were we, that now are rooted here. 
Thy hand might well have spared us, had we been 
The souls of serpents." As a brand yet green, 
That burning at one end from the other sends 
A groaning sound, and hisses with the wind 
That forces out its way, so burst at once 
Forth from the broken splinter words and blood. 

I, letting fall the bough, remain'd as one 
Assail'd by terror ; and the sage replied : 
"If he, O injured spirit ! could have believed 
What he hath seen but in my verse described 2 , 

Proluvies, uncaeque nianus et pallida semper 

Ora fame. Virg. j£n. lib. iii. 216. 

1 Gather'd I.] So Frezzi. 

A quelle frasche stesi su la mano, 
E d'una vetta un ramuscel ne colsi ; 
Allora ella grido : oinie, fa piano, 
E sangue vivo usci, ond' io lo tolsi. H Quadrir. lib. i. cap. 4. 
- In my verse described.] The commentators explain this, "If be could 

F 



(66) THE VISION. 49—69. 

He never against thee had stretch'd his hand. 

But I, because the thing surpassed belief, 

Prompted him to this deed, which even now 

Myself I rue. But tell me, who thou wast ; 

That, for this wrong to do thee some amends, 

In the upper world (for thither to return 

Is granted him) thy fame he may revive." 

" That pleasant word of thine V' the trunk replied, 

" Hath so inveigled me, that I from speech 

Cannot refrain, wherein if I indulge 

A little longer, in the snare detain 'd, 

Count it not grievous. I it was 2 , who held 

Both keys to Frederick's heart, and turn'd the wards, 

Opening and shutting, with a skill so sweet, 

That besides me, into his inmost breast 

Scarce any other could admittance find. 

The faith I bore to my high charge was such, 

It cost me the life-blood that warm'd my veins. 

The harlot 3 , who ne'er turn'd her gloating eyes 

From Caesar's household, common vice and pest 

Of courts, 'gainst me inflamed the minds of all ; 

hare believed, in consequence of my assurances alone, that of which he hath 
now had ocular proof, he would not have stretched forth his hand against 
thee." But I am of opinion that Dante makes Virgil allude to his own 
story of Polydorus, in the third book of the iEneid. L That "pleasant 

word of thi?ie.] " Since you have inveigled me to speak by holding forth 
so gratifying ten expectation, let it not displease you if I am as it were 
detained in the snare you have spread for me, so as to be somewhat prolix 
in my answer." 2 I it was.] Piero delle Vigne, a native of Capua, who 
from a low condition raised himself, by his eloquence and legal knowledge, 
to the office of Chancellor to the Emperor Frederick II. ; whose confidence 
in him was such, that his influence in the empire became unbounded. The 
courtiers, envious of his exalted situation, contrived, by means of forged 
letters, to make Frederick believe that he held a secret and traitorous inter- 
course with the Pope, who was then at enmity with the Emperor. In conse- 
quence of this supposed crime, he was cruelly condemned, by his too credu- 
lous sovereign, to lose his eyes ; and being driven to despair by his unmerited 
calamity and disgrace, he put an end to his life by dashing out his brains 
against the walls of a church, in the year 1245. Both Frederick and Piero 
delle Vigne composed verses in the Sicilian dialect, which are now extant. 
A canzone by each of them may be seen in the ninth book of the Sonetti 
and Canzoni di diversi Autori Toscani, published by the Giunti in 1527. 
See further the note on Purg. Canto iii. 110. 3 The harlot.] Envy. 
Chaucer alludes to this, in the Prologue to the Legende of Good Women : 
Envie is lavender to the court alway, 
For she ne parteth neither night ne day 
Out of the house of Cesar : thus saith Dant. 



70—110. HELL, Canto XIII. (67) 

And to Augustus they so spread the flame, 

That my glad honours changed to bitter woes. 

My soul, disdainful and disgusted, sought 

Refuge in death from seorn, and I became, 

Just as I was, unjust toward myself. 

By the new roots, which fix this stem, I swear, 

That never faith I broke to my liege lord, 

Who merited such honour ; and of you, 

If any to the world indeed return, 

Clear he from wrong my memory, that lies 

Yet prostrate under envy's cruel blow." 

First somewhat pausing, till the mournful words 
Were ended, then to me the bard began : 
"Lose not the time ; but speak, and of liim ask, 
If more thou wish to learn." Whence I replied : 
" Question thou him again of whatsoe'er 
Will, as thou think' st, content me ; for no power 
Have I to ask, such pity is at my heart." 

He thus resumed : " So may he do for thee 
Freely what thou entreatest, as thou yet 
Be pleased, imprison' d spirit ! to declare, 
How in these gnarled joints the soul is tied ; 
And whether any ever from such frame 
Be loosen'd, if thou canst, that also tell." 

Thereat the trunk breathed hard, and the wind soon 
Changed into sounds articulate like these : 
" Briefly ye shall be answer'd. When departs 
The fierce soul from the body, by itself 
Thence torn asunder, to the seventh gulf 
By Minos doom'd, into the wood it falls, 
No place assign'd, but wheresoever chance 
Hurls it ; there sprouting, as a grain of spelt, 
It rises to a sapling, growing thence 
A savage plant. The Harpies, on its leaves 
Then feeding, cause both pain, and for the pain 
A vent to grief. We, as the rest, shall come 
For our own spoils, yet not so that with them 
We may again be clad ; for what a man 
Takes from himself it is not just he have. 
Here we perforce shall drag them ; and throughout 
The dismal glade our bodies shall be hung, 

F 2 






(68) THE VISION. 111—141. 

Each on the wild thorn of his wretched shade." 

Attentive yet to listen to the trunk 
We stood, expecting further speech, when us 
A noise surprised ; as when a man perceives 
The wild boar and the hunt approach his place 
Of station' d watch, who of the beasts and boughs 
Loud rustling round him hears. And lo! there came 
Two naked, torn with briers, in headlong flight, 
That they before them broke each fan o'th' wood 1 . 
" Haste now," the foremost cried, "now haste thee, death ! M 
The other, as seem'd, impatient of delay, 
Exclaiming, "Lano 2 ! not so bent for speed 
Thy sinews, in the lists of Toppo's field." 
And then, for that perchance no longer breath 
Sufficed him, of himself and of a bush 
One group he made. Behind them was the wood 
Full of black female mastiffs, gaunt and fleet, 
As greyhounds that have newly slipt the leash. 
On him, who squatted down, they stuck their fangs, 
And having rent him piecemeal bore away 
The tortured lirnbs. My guide then seized my hand, 
And led me to the thicket, which in vain 
Mourn' d through its bleeding wounds : " O Giacomo 
Of Sant' Andrea 3 ! what avails it thee," 
It cried, " that of me thou hast made thy screen ? 
For thy ill life, what blame on me recoils ? n 

When o'er it he had paused, my master spake : 
" Say who wast thou, that at so many points 
B readiest out with blood thy lamentable speech ? " 

He answer* d : " O ye spirits ! arrived in time 
To spy the shameful havoc that from me 

1 Each fan o' th' wood.] Hence perhaps Milton: 

Leaves and fuming rills, Aurora's fan. P. L. b. v. 6. 
Some nave translated " rosta" " impediment," instead of " fan." 

2 Lano.] Lano, a Siennese, who being reduced by prodigality to a state 
of extreme want, found his existence no longer supportable ; and having 
been sent by his countrymen on a milit ary expedition to assist the Floren- 
tines against the Aretini, took that opportunity of exposing himself to cer- 
tain death, in the engagement which took place at Toppo near Arezzo. See 
G. Villain, Hist. lib. vii. c. cxix. 

3 O Giacomo 

Of San? Andrea f] Jacopo da Sant' Andrea, a Paduan, who, ha 
wasted his property in the most wanton acts of profusion, killed himself in 
despair. 



142—152. HELL, Canto XIII. (69) 

My leaves hath sever' d thus, gather them up, 
And at the foot of their sad parent -tree 
Carefully lay them. In that city 1 I dwelt, 
Who for the Baptist her first patron changed, 
Whence he for this shall cease not with his art 
To work her woe : and if there still remain'd not 
On Arno's passage some faint glimpse of him, 
Those citizens, who rear'd once more her walls 
Upon the ashes left by Attila, 
Had labour'd without profit of their toil. 
I slun'g the fatal noose 2 from my own roof." 



CANTO XIV. 



A> 



ARGUMENT. 

They arrive at the beginning of the third of those compartments into which 
this seventh circle is divided. It is a plain of dry and hot sand, -where 
three kinds of violence are punished ; namely, against God, against Na- 
ture, and against Art ; and those who have thus sinned, are tormented by 
flakes of fire, which arc eternally showering down upon them. Among 
the violent against God is found Capaneus, whose blasphemies they hear. 
Next, turning to the left along the forest of self-slayers, and having jour- 
neyed a little onwards, they meet with a streamlet of blood that issues 
from the forest and traverses the sandy plain. Here Virgil speaks to our 
Poet of a huge ancient statue that stands within Mount Ida in Crete, from 
a fissure in which statue there is a dripping of tears, from which the said 
streamlet, together with the three other infernal rivers, are formed. 

Soon as the charity of native land 

Wrought in my bosom, I the scatter'd leaves 

Collected, and to him restored, who now 

Was hoarse with utterance. To the limit thence 

AVe came, which from the third the second round 

1 In that city.] " I was an inhabitant of Florence, that city which 
changed her first patron Mars for St. John the Baptist ; for which reason 
the vengeance of the deity thus slighted will never be appeased; and 
if some remains of his statue were not still visible on the bridge over the 
Arno, she would have been already leveled to the ground ; and thus the 
citizens, who raised her again from the ashes to which Attila had reduced 
her, would have laboured in vain." See Paradise, Canto xvi. 44. The re- 
lic of antiquity, to which the superstition of Florence attached so high an 
importance, was carried away by a flood, that destroyed the bridge on which 
it stood, in the year 1337, but without the ill effects that were apprehended 
from the loss of their fancied Palladium. 2 I slung the fatal noose.'] We 
are not informed who this suicide was ; some calling him Itocco de' Mozzi, 
and others Lotto degli Agli. 



(70) THE VISION. 6—39. 

Divides, and where of justice is display'd 

Contrivance horrible. Things then first seen 

Clearlier to manifest, I tell how next 

A plain we reach'd, that from its steril bed 

Each plant repell'd. The mournful wood waves round 

Its garland on all sides, as round the wood 

Spreads the sad foss. There, on the very edge, 

Our steps we stay'd. It was an area wide 

Of arid sand and thick, resembling most 

The soil that erst by Cato's foot l was trod. 

Vengeance of heaven ! Oh ! how shouldst thou be 
By all, who read what here mine eyes beheld. [fear'd 

Of naked spirits many a flock I saw, 
All weeping piteously, to different laws 
Subjected ; for on the earth some lay supine, 
Some crouching close were seated, others paced 
Incessantly around ; the latter tribe 
More numerous, those fewer who beneath 
The torment lay, but louder in their grief. 

O'er all the sand fell slowly wafting down 
Dilated flakes of fire 2 , as flakes of snow 
On Alpine summit, when the wind is hush'd. 
As, in the torrid Indian clime 3 , the son 
Of Amnion saw, upon his warrior band 
Descending, solid flames, that to the ground 
Came down ; whence he bethought him with his troop 
To trample on the soil ; for easier thus 
The vapour was extinguish'd, while alone : 
So fell the eternal fiery flood, wherewith 
The marie glow'd underneath, as under stove 4 
The viands, doubly to augment the pain. 
Unceasing was the play of wretched hands, 
Now this, now that way glancing, to shake off 
The heat, still falling fresh. I thus began : 

1 By Cato's foot. ~\ See Lucan, Pilars, lib. ix. 

2 Dilated flakes of fire.] Compare Tasso, G-. L. c. x. st. 61. 

Al iiii giungemmo al loco, o\e gia scese 
Fiamma del cielo in dilatate falde, 
E di natura vendico 1' offese 
Sovra la gente in mal oprar si salde. 

3 As, in the torrid Indian clime.'] Landino refers to Albertus Magnus for 
the circumstance here alluded to. 4 As under stove.] So Frezzi: 

Si come V esca al foco del focile. Lib. i. cap. 17. 



40—73. HELL, Canto XIV. (71) 

u Instructor ! thou who all things overcomest, 
Except the hardy demons that rush'd forth 
To stop our entrance at the gate, say who 
Is yon huge spirit, that, as seems, heeds not 
The burning, but lies writhen in proud scorn, 
As by the sultry tempest immatured?" 

Straight he himself, who was aware I ask'd 
My guide of him, exclaim'd •/" Such as I was 
When living, dead such now I am> If Jove 
Weary his workman out, from whom in ire 
He snatch' d the lightnings, that at my last day 
Transfix' d me ; if the rest he weary out, 
At their black smithy labouring by turns, 
In Mongibello l , while he cries aloud, 
' Help, help, good Mulciber !' as erst he cried 
In the Phlegroean warfare ; and the bolts 
Launch he, full aim'd at me, with all his might ; 
He never should enjoy a sweet revenge." 

Then thus my guide, in accent higher raised 
Than I before had heard him : " Capaneus ! 
Thou art more punish' d, in that this thy pride 
Lives yet unquench'd : no torment, save thy rage, 
Were to thy fury pain proportion' d full." 

Next turning round to me, with milder lip 
He spake : " This of the seven kings was one 2 , 
Who girt the Theban walls with siege, and held, 
As still he seems to hold, God in disdain, 
And sets his high omnipotence at nought. 
But, as I tpld him, his despiteful mood 
Is ornament well suits the breast that wears it. 
Follow me now ; and look thou set not yet 
Thy foot in the hot sand, but to the wood 
Keep ever close." Silently on we pass'd 
To where there gushes from the forest's bound 

1 In Mongibello.'] More hot than JEtn' or flaming Mongibell. 

Spenser, F. Q. b. ii. c. ix. st. 29. 
Siccome alia fucina in Mongibello Batte folgori e foco col martello, 
Fabrica tuono il demonio Ynlcano, E con esso i snoi fabri in ogni mano. 

Benii, Orl. Inn. lib. i. c. xri. st. 21. 
See Virg. JEn. lib. yiii. 416. It would be endless to refer to parallel pas- 
sages in the Greek writers. 

8 This of the seven kings was one."] Compare iEseh. Seven Chiefs, 425. 
Euripides, Phcen. 1179. and Statins, Theb. lib. x. 821. 



(72) THE VISION. 74—103. 

A little brook, whose crimson' d wave yet lifts 

My hair with horror. As the rill, that runs 

From Bulicame 1 , to be portion' d out 

Among the sinful women ; so ran this 

Down through the sand ; its bottom and each bank 

Stone-built, and either margin at its side, 

Whereon I straight perceived our passage lay. . 

" Of all that I have shown thee, since that gate 
We enter' d first, whose threshold is to none 
Denied, nought else so worthy of regard, 
As is this river, has thine eye discern' d, 
O'er which the flaming volley all is quench'd." 

So spake my guide ; and I him thence besought, 
That having given me appetite to know, 
The food he too would give, that hunger craved. 

" In midst of ocean," forthwith he began, 
" A desolate country lies, which Crete is named ; 
Under whose monarch 2 , in old times, the world 
Lived pure and chaste. A mountain rises there, 
Call'd Ida, joyous once with leaves and streams, 
Deserted now like a forbidden thing. 
It was the spot which Rhea, Saturn's spouse, 
Chose for the secret cradle of her son ; 
And better to conceal him, drown'd in shouts 
His infant cries. Within the mount, upright 
An ancient form there stands, and huge, that turns 
His shoulders towards Damiata ; and at Rome, 
As in his mirror, looks. Of finest gold 
His head 3 is shaped, pure silver are the breast 
And arms, thence to the middle is of brass, 

1 Bulicame .] A warm medicinal spring near Viterbo; the waters of 
which, as Landino and Vellutelli affirm, passed by a place of ill fame. Ven- 
turi, with less probability, conjectures that Dante would imply that it was 
the scene of much licentious merriment among those who frequented its baths. 

2 Under whose monarch.} 

Credo pudicitiam Saturno rege moratam 

In terris. Juv. Satir. vi. 

In Saturn's reign, at Nature's early birth, 

There was a thing call'd chastity on earth. Dry den. 

3 His head.] This is imitated by Frezzi, in the Quadriregio, lib. iv. cap. 14 : 

La statua grande vidi in un gran piano, &c. 
" This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his 
belly and his thighs of brass : His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part 
of clay." Daniel, ch. ii. 32, 33. 



104—133. HELL, Canto XIV. (73) 

And downward all beneath well-temper'd steel. 
Save the right foot of potter's clay, on which 
Than on the other more erect he stands. 
Each part, except the gold, is rent throughout ; 
And from the fissure tears distil, which join'd 
Penetrate to that cave. They in their course, 
Thus far precipitated down the rock, 
Form Acheron, and Styx, and Phlegethon ; 
Then by this straiten'd channel passing hence 
Beneath, e'en to the lowest depth of all, 
Form there Cocytus, of whose lake (thyself 
Shalt see it) I here give thee no account." 

Then I to him : " If from our world this sluice 
Be thus derived ; wherefore to us but now 
Appears it at this edge ?" He straight replied : 
" The place, thou know'st, is round : and though great part 
Thou have already past, still to the left 
Descending to the nethermost, not yet 
Hast thou the circuit made of the whole orb. 
Wherefore, if aught of new to us appear, 
It needs not bring up wonder in thy looks." 

Then I again inquired : " Where flow the streams 
Of Phlegethon and Lethe ? for of one 
Thou tell' st not ; and the other, of that shower, 
Thou say'st, is form'd." He answer thus return'd : 
" Doubtless thy questions all well pleased I hear. 
Yet the red seething wave 1 might have resolved 
One thou proposest. Lethe thou shalt see, 
But not within this hollow, in the place 
Whither 2 , to lave themselves, the spirits go, 
Whose blame hath been by penitence removed." 
He added : " Time is now we quit the wood. 
Look thou my steps pursue : the margins give 
Safe passage, unimpeded by the flames ; 
For over them all vapour is extinct." 

1 The red seething wave.'] This he might have known was Phlegethon. 

2 Whither.] On the other side of Purgatory. 



(74) THE VISION. 1—23. 

CANTO XV. 



ARGUMENT. 

Taking their way upon one of the mounds by which the streamlet, spoken 
of in the last Canto, was embanked, and having gone so far that they could 
no longer have discerned the forest if they had turned round to look for it, 
they meet a troop of spirits that come along the sand by the side of the 
pier. These are they who have done violence to Nature ; and amongst 
them Dante distinguishes Brunetto Latini, who had been formerly his 
master ; with whom, turning a little backward, he holds a discourse which 
occupies the remainder of this Canto. 

One of the solid margins bears us now 

Envelop'd in the mist, that, from the stream 

Arising, hovers o'er, and saves from fire 

Both piers and water. As the Flemings rear 

Their mound, 'twixt Ghent and Bruges, to chase back 

The ocean, fearing his tumultuous tide 

That drives toward them ; or the Paduans theirs 

Along the Brenta, to defend their towns 

And castles, ere the genial warmth be felt 

On Chiarentana's l top ; such were the mounds, 

So framed, though not in height or bulk to these 

Made equal, by the master, whosoe'er 

He was, that raised them here. We from the wood 

Were now so far removed, that turning round 

I might not have discern'd it, when we met 

A troop of spirits, who came beside the pier. 

They each one eyed us, as at eventide 
One eyes another under a new moon ; 
And toward us sharpen'd their sight, as keen 
As an old tailor at his needle's eye 2 . 

Thus narrowly explored by all the tribe, 
I was agnized of one, who by the skirt 
Caught me, and cried, " What wonder have we here ? " 

1 Chiarentana.~\ A part of the Alps where the Brenta rises ; which river 
is much swoln as soon as the snow begins to dissolve on the mountains. 

2 As an old tailor at his needle's eye.'] In Fazio degli Uberti's Ditta- 
mondo, 1. iv. cap. 4. the tailor is introduced in a simile scarcely less 
picturesque : 

Perche tanto mi stringe a questo punto 
La lunga tenia, ch' io fo come il sarto 
Che quando affretta spesso passa il punto 



24—28. HELL, Canto XV. (75) 

And I, when he to me outstretch'd his arm, 
Intently fix'd my ken on his parch' d looks, 
That, although smirch'd with fire, they hinder d not 
But I remember' d him ; and towards his face 
My hand inclining, answered : " Ser Brunetto l ! 

1 Brunetto.'] " Ser Brunetto, a Florentine, the secretary or chancellor of 
the city, and Dante's preceptor, hath left us a work so little read, that both 
the subject of it and the language of it have been mistaken. It is in the 
French spoken in the reign of St. Louis, under the title of Tresor ; and con- 
tains a species of philosophical course of lectures divided into theory and 
practice, or, as he expresses it, un enchaussement des choses divines et hu- 
maiyies" &c. Sir R. Clayton's Translation of Tenhove's Memoirs of the 
Medici, vol. i. ch. ii. p. 104. The Tresor has never been printed in the 
original language. There is a fine manuscript of it in the British Museum, 
with an illuminated portrait of Brunetto in his study, prefixed. Mus. Brit. 
MSS. 17. E. 1. Tesor. It is divided into four books : the first, on Cosmogony 
and Theology ; the second, a translation of Aristotle's Ethics ; the third, on 
Virtues and Vices ; the fourth, on Rhetoric. For an interesting memoir 
relating to this work, see Hist, de l'Acad. des Inscriptions, torn. vii. 296. 
His Tcsoretto, one of the earliest productions of Italian poetry, is a curious 
work, not unlike the writings ot- Chaucer in style and numbers; though 
Bembo remarks, that his pupil, however largely he had stolen from it, could 
not have much enriched himself. As it is perhaps but little known, I will 
here add a slight sketch of it. Brunetto describes himself as returning from 
an embassy to the King of Spain, on which he had been sent by the Guelph 
party from Florence. On the plain of Roncesvalles he meets a scholar on a 
bay mule — 

un scolaio There a scholar I espied 

Sur un muletto baio. On a bay mule that did ride. 

— who tells him that the Guelfi are driven out of the city with great loss. 
Struck with grief at these mournful tidings, and musing with his head bent 
downwards, he loses his road, and wanders into a wood. Here Nature, whose 
figure is described with sublimity, appears, and discloses to him the secrets of 
her operations. After this, he wanders into a desert — 

Deh che paese fiero Well-away ! what fearful ground 

Trovai in quella parte. In that savage part I found. 

Che s'io sapessi d'arte If of art I aught could ken, 

Quivi mi bisognava. Well behoved me use it then. 

Che quanto piu mirava More I look'd, the more I deem'd 

Piu mi parea selvaggio. That it wild and desert seem'd. 

Quivi non a viaggio, Not a road was there in sight, 

Quivi non a persone, Not a house, and not a wight ; 

Quivi non a magione. Not a bird, and not a brute, 

Non bestia non uccello, Not a rill, and not a root ; 

Non fiume non ruscello, Not an emmet, not a fly, 

Non formica non mosca, Not a thing I mote descry. 

Non cosa ch'io conosca. Sore I doubted therewithal 

Ed io pensando forte WTiether death would me befal ; 

Dottai ben della morte, Nor was wonder, for around 

E non e maraviglia, Full three hundred miles of ground 

Che ben trecento miglia, Right across on every side 

Durava d'ogni lato, Lay the desert bare and wide. 

Quel paese smagato. 



(76) THE VISION. 29—41. 

And are ye here ?" He thus to me : " My son ! 

Oh let it not displease thee, if Brunetto 

Latini but a little space with thee 

Turn back, and leave his fellows to proceed." 

I thus to him replied : M Much as I can. 
I thereto pray thee : and if thou be willing 
That I here seat me with thee, I consent : 
His leave, with whom I journey, first obtain'd." 

" son ! " said he, " whoever of this throng 
One instant stops, lies then a hundred years, 
ZSTo fan to ventilate him, when the fire 
Smites sorest. Pass thou therefore on. I close 
Will at thy garments walk, and then rejoin 

— and proceeds on his way. under the protection of a banner with which 
Nature had furnished him. till on the third day he finds himself in a plea- 
sant champain. where are assembled many emperors, kings, and sages : 

L n gran piano siaeondo Wide and far the champain lay, 

Lo piu gajo del mondo None in all the earth so gay. 

E lo piu degnitoso. 
It is the habitation of Virtue and her daughters, the four Cardinal Virtues. 
Here Brunetto sees also Courtesy. Bounty. Loyalty, and Prowess, and hears 
the instructions they give to a knight, which occupy about a fourth part of 
the poem. Leaving this territory, lie passes over valleys, mountains, woods. 
forests, and bridges, till he arrives in a beautiful valley covered with flowers 
on all sides, and the richest in the world : but which was continually shift- 
ing its appearance from a round figure to a square, from obscurity to light, 
and from populousness to solitude. This is the region o£ Pleasure, or Cu- 
pid, who is accompanied by four ladies. Love. Hope. FearNmd Desire. In 
one part of it he meets with Ovid, and is instructed by him how to conquer 
the passion of love, and to escape from that place. After lus escape, he 
makes his confession to a Mar. and then returns to the forest of visions; 
and. ascending a mountain, meets with Ptolemy, a venerable old man. 
Here the narrative breaks off. The poem ends, as it began, with an address 
to Rustic o cli Filippo, on whom he lavishes every sort of praise. 

It has been obseiwed. that Dante derived the idea of opening his poem by 
describing himself as lost in a wood, from the Tesoretto of his master. I 
know not whether it has been remarked, that the crime of usury is branded 
by both these poets as offensive to God and Nature : — 

Un altro, che non cura One, that holdeth not in mind 

Di Dio ne di Natura, Law of God or Nature's kind, 

Si diventa usuriere. Taketh him to usury. 

— or that the sin for which Brunetto is condemned by his pupil is mentioned 
in his Tesoretto with great horror. But see what is said on this subject by 
Perticari. Degli Scrittori del Trecento. 1. i. c. iv. Dante's twenty-fifth son- 
net is a jocose one. addressed to Brunetto, of which a translation is inserted 
in the Life of Dante prefixed. He died in 1294. G. Viliani sums up his 
account of him by saying, that he was himself a worldly man : but that he 
was the first to refine the Florentines from their grossness. and to instruct 
them in speaking properly, and in conducting the affairs of the republic on 
principles of policy. 



42—73. HELL, Canto XV. (77) 

My troop, who go mourning their endless doom." 

I dared not from the path descend to tread 
On equal ground with him, but held my head 
Bent down, as one who walks in reverent guise. 

" What chance or destiny," thus he began, 
" Ere the last day, conducts thee here below ? 
And who is this that shows to thee the way ? " 

" There up aloft," I answer' d, " in the life 
Serene, I wander* d in a valley lost, 
Before mine age l had to its fulness reach'd. 
But yester-morn I left it : then once more 
Into that vale returning, him I met ; 
And by this path homeward he leads me back." 

" If thou," he answer'd, " follow but thy star, 
Thou canst not miss at last a glorious haven ; 
Unless in fairer days my judgment err'd. 
And if my fate so early had not chanced, 
Seeing the heavens thus bounteous to thee, I 
Had gladly given thee comfort in thy work. 
But that ungrateful and malignant race, 
Who in old times came down from Fesole 2 , 
Ay and still smack of their rough mountain-flint, 
Will for thy good deeds show thee enmity. 
Nor wonder ; for amongst ill-savour' d crabs 
It suits not the sweet fig-tree lay her fruit. 
Old fame reports them in the world for blind 3 , 
Covetous, envious, proud. Look to it well : 
Take heed thou cleanse thee of their ways. For thee, 
Thy fortune hath such honour in reserve, 
That thou by either party shalt be craved 
With hunger keen : but be the fresh herb far 
From the goat's tooth. The herd of Fesole 

1 Before mine age.] On the whole, Vellutello's explanation of this is, I 
think, most satisfactory. He supposes it to mean, " before the appointed end 
of his life was arrived — before his days were accomplished." Lombardi, 
concluding that the fulness of age must be the same as " the midway of this 
our mortal life," (see Canto i. v. 1.) understands that he had lost himself in 
the wood before that time, and that he then only discovered his having gone 
astray. 2 Who in old times came down from Fesole.] See G. Villani, 

Hist. lib. iv. cap. v. and Macchiav. Hist, of Flor. b. ii. 3 Blind.] It is 

said that the Florentines were thus called, in consequence of their having 
been deceived by a shallow artifice practised on them by the Pisans, in the 
year 1117. See G. Villani, lib. iv. cap. xxx. 



(78) THE VISION. 74—110. 

May of themselves make litter, not touch the plant, 
If any such yet spring on their rank bed, 
In which the holy seed revives, transmitted 
From those true Romans, who still there remain'd, 
When it was made the nest of so much ill." 

"Were all my wish fulfill'd," I straight replied, 
" Thou from the confines of man's nature yet 
Hadst not been driven forth ; for in my mind 
Is fix'd, and now strikes full upon my heart, 
The dear, benign, paternal image, such 
As thine was, when so lately thou didst teach me 
The way for man to win eternity : 
And how I prized the lesson, it behoves, 
That, long as life endures, my tongue should speak. 
What of my fate thou tell'st, that write I down ; 
And, with another text l to comment on, 
For her I keep it, the celestial dame, 
Who will know all, if I to her arrive. 
This only would I have thee clearly note : 
That, so my conscience have no plea against me, 
Do Fortune as she list, I stand prepared. 
Not new or strange such earnest to mine ear. 
Speed Fortune then her wheel, as likes her best ; 
The clown his mattock ; all things have their course." 

Thereat my sapient guide upon his right 
Turn'd himself back, then looked at me, and spake : 
" He listens to good purpose who takes note." 

I not the less still on my way proceed, 
Discoursing with Brunetto, and inquire 
Who are most known and chief among his tribe. 

"To know of some is well ;" he thus replied, 
"But of the rest silence may best beseem. 
Time would not serve us for report so long. 
In brief I tell thee, that all these were clerks, 
Men of great learning and no less renown, 
By one same sin polluted in the world. 
With them is Priscian 2 ; and Accorso's son, 

1 With another text.] He refers to the prediction of Farinata, in Canto x. 

2 Priscian.] There is no reason to believe, as the commentators observe, 
that the grammarian of this name was stained with the vice imputed to him ; 
ixnd we must therefore suppose that Dante puts the individual for the species, 



111—126. HELL, Canto XV. (79) 

Francesco \ herds among that wretched throng : 
And, if the wish of so impure a blotch 
Possess'd thee, him 2 thou also mightst have seen. 
Who by the servants' servant 3 was transferr'd 
From Arno's seat to Bacchiglione, where 
His ill-strain'd nerves he left. I more would add, 
But must from further speech and onward wav 
Alike desist ; for yonder I behold 
A mist new-risen on the sandy plain. 
A company, with whom I may not sort, 
Approaches. I commend my Treasure to thee 4 , 
"Wherein I yet survive ; my sole request." 

This said, he turn'd, and seem'd as one of those 
Who o'er Verona's champain try their speed 
For the green mantle ; and of them he seem'd, 
Not he who loses but who gains the prize. 



CAXTO XVI. 



ARGUMENT. 

Journeying along the pier, which crosses the sand, they are now so near the 
end of it as to hear the noise of the stream falling into the eighth circle, 
when they meet the spirits of three military men ; who judging Dante, 
from his dress, to be a countryman of theirs, entreat him to stop. He 
complies, and speaks with them. The two Poets then reach the place 

and implies the frequency of the crime among those who abused the oppor- 
tunities which the education of youth afforded them, to so abominable a pur- 
pose. l Frcnicesco.] Accorso, a Florentine, interpreted the Roman law 
at Bologna, and died in 1229, at the age of 78. His authority was so great 
as to exceed that of all the other interpreters, so that Cino da Pistoia termed 
him the Idol of Advocates. His sepulchre, and that of his son Francesco 
here spoken of, is at Bologna, with, this short epitaph : " Sepulcrum Accursii 
Glossatoris et Francisci ejus Filii." See Gividi Panziroli, De Clam Legum 
Interpretibus, lib. ii. cap. xxix. Lips. 4to. 1721. 2 Him.'] Andrea de' 
Mozzi, who, that his scandalous life might be less exposed to observation, 
was translated either by Xicolas III. or Boniface VIII. from the see of Flo- 
rence to that of Yicenza, through which passes the river Bacchiglione. At 
the latter of these places he died. 

* The servants' servant.] Servo de' servi. So Ariosto, Sat. iii. 
Degli servi 
Io sia il gran servo. 

4 / commend my Treasure to thee.] Brunetto's great work, the Tresor : 
Sieti raccomandato '1 mio Tesoro. 
So Giusto de' Conti, in his Bella Mano, Son. " Occhi : " 
Siavi raccommandato il mio Tesoro. 






(80) THE VISION. 1—37. 

where the water descends, being the termination of this third compart- 
ment in the seventh circle ; and here Virgil having thrown down into the 
hollow a cord, wherewith Dante was girt, they behold at that signal a 
monstrous and horrible figure come swimming up to them. 

Now came I where the water's din was heard, 

As down it fell into the other round, 

Resounding like the hum of swarming bees : 

When forth together issued from a troop, 

That pass'd beneath the fierce tormenting storm, 

Three spirits, running swift. They towards us came, 

And each one cried aloud, " Oh ! do thou stay, 

Whom, by the fashion of thy garb, we deem 

To be some inmate of our evil land/' 

Ah me ! what wounds I mark'd upon their limbs, 
^Recent and old, inflicted by the flames. 
E'en the remembrance of them grieves me yet. 

Attentive to their cry, my teacher paused, 
And turn'd to me his visage, and then spake : 
" Wait now : our courtesy these merit well : 
And were 't not for the nature of the place, 
Whence glide the fiery darts, I should have said, 
That haste had better suited thee than them. ,, 

They, when we stopp'd, resumed their ancient wail, 
And, soon as they had reach'd us, all the three 
Whirl' d round together in one restless wheel. 
As naked champions, smear 'd with slippery oil 
Are wont, intent, to watch their place of hold 
And vantage, ere in closer strife they meet ; 
Thus each one, as he wheel' d, his countenance 
At me directed, so that opposite 
The neck moved ever to the twinkling feet. 

" If woe of this unsound and dreary waste," 
Thus one began, " added to our sad cheer 
Thus peel'd with flame, do call forth scorn on us 
And our entreaties, let our great renown 
Incline thee to inform us who thou art, 
That dost imprint, with living feet unharm'd, 
The soil of Hell. He, in whose track thou seest 
My steps pursuing, naked though he be 
And reft of all, was of more high estate 
Than thou believest ; grandchild of the chaste 



38—46. HELL, Canto XVI. (SI) 

Gualdrada ! , him they Guidoguerra call'd, 
Who in his lifetime many a noble act 2 
Achieved, both by his wisdom and his sword. 
The other, next to me that beats the sand, 
Is Aldobrandi 3 , name deserving well, 
In the upper world, of honour ; and myself, 
Who in this torment do partake with them, 
Am Rusticucci 4 , whom, past doubt, my wife, 
Of savage temper, more than aught beside 

1 Gualdrada.] Gualdrada was the daughter of Bellincione Berti, of whom 
mention is made in the Paradise, Canto xv. and xvi. He was of the family 
of Ravignani, a branch of the Adimari. The Emperor Otho IV. being at a 
festival in Florence, where Gualdrada was present, was struck with her 
beauty ; and inquiring who she was, was answered by Bellincione, that she 
was the daughter of one who, if it was his Majesty's pleasure, would make 
her admit the honour of his salute. On overhearing this, she arose from her 
seat, and blushing, in an animated tone of voice, desired her father that he 
would not be so liberal in his offers, for that no man should ever be allowed 
that freedom except him who should be her lawful husband. The Emperor 
was not less delighted by her resolute modesty than he had before been by 
the loveliness of her person ; and calling to him Guido, one of his barons, 
gave her to him in marriage ; at the same time raising him to the rank of a 
count, and bestowing on her the whole of Cascntino, and a part of the terri- 
tory of Romagna, as her portion. Two sons were the offspring of this union, 
Guglielmo and Ruggieri ; the latter of whom was father of Guidoguerra, a 
man of great military skill and prowess ; who, at the head of four hundred 
Florentines of the Guelph party, was signally instrumental to the victory ob- 
tained at Benevento by Charles of Anjou, over Manfredi King of Naples, in 
1265. One of the consequences of this victory was the expulsion of the 
Ghibellini, and the re-establishment of the Guelfi at Florence. Borghini, 
(Disc, dell' Orig. di Firenze, ediz. 1755. pag. 6.) as cited by Lombard!, en- 
deavours by a comparison of dates to throw discredit on the above relation of 
Gualdrada's answer to her father, which is found in G. Villani, lib. v. c. 
xxxvii. : and Lombardi adds, that if it had been true, Bellincione would have 
been worthy of a place in the eighteenth Canto of Hell, rather than of being 
mentioned with praise in the Paradise : to which it may be answered, that 
the proposal of the father, however irreconcileable it may be to our notions of 
modern refinement, might possibly in those times have been considered rather 
as a sportive sally than as a serious exposure of his daughter's innocence. 
The incident is related, in a manner very unfavourable to Berti, by Francesco 
Sansovino, in one of his Novelle, inserted by Mr. Thomas Roscoe in his en- 
tertaining selection from the Italian Novelists, v. iii. p. 137. 

2 Many a noble act.] 

Molto egli opro col senno e con la mano. Tasso, G. L. c. i. st. 1. 

:i Aldobrandi.] Tegghiaio Aldobrandi was of the noble family of Adi- 
mari, and much esteemed for his military talents. He endeavoured to 
dissuade the Florentines from the attack which they meditated against the 
Siennese ; and the rejection of his counsel occasioned the memorable defeat 
which the former sustained at Montaperto, and the consequent banishment 
of the Guelfi from Florence. 4 Rusticucci.] Giacopo Rusticucci, a 

Florentine, remarkable for his opulence and the generosity of his spirit. 

G 



(82) 



THE VISION. 



47—82. 



Hath to this evil brought." If from the fire 
I had been shelter' d, down amidst them straight 
I then had cast me ; nor my guide, I deem, 
Would have restrain' d my going : but that fear 
Of the dire burning vanquish' d the desire, 
Which made me eager of their wish'd embrace. 

I then began : " Not scorn, but grief much more, 
Such as long time alone can cure, your doom 
Fix'd deep within me, soon as this my lord 
Spake words, whose tenor taught me to expect 
That such a race, as ye are, was at hand. 
I am a countryman of yours, who still 
Affectionate have utter'd, and have heard 
Your deeds and names renown'd. Leaving the gall, 
For the sweet fruit I go, that a sure guide 
Hath promised to me. But behoves, that far 
As to the centre first I downward tend." 

" So may long space thy spirit guide thy limbs," 
He answer straight return'd ; " and so thy fame 
Shine bright when thou art gone, as thou shalt tell, 
If courtesy and valour, as they wont, 
Dwell in our city, or have vanish'd clean : 
For one amidst us late condemn'd to wail, 
Borsiere 1 , yonder walking with his peers, 
Grieves us no little by the news he brings." 

" An upstart multitude and sudden gains, 
Pride and excess, O Florence ! have in thee 
Engender'd, so that now in tears thou mourn'st ! " 

Thus cried I, with my face upraised, and they 
All three, who for an answer took my words, 
Look'd at each other, as men look when truth 
Comes to their ear. " If at so little cost 2 ," 
They all at once rejoin 'd, "thou satisfy 
Others who question thee, O happy thou ! 
Gifted with words so apt to speak thy thought. 
Wherefore, if thou escape this darksome clime, 

1 Borsiere.] Guglielmo Borsiere, another Florentine, whom Boccaccio, in 
a story which he relates of him, terms " a man of courteous and elegant 
manners, and of great readiness in conversation." Dec. Giorn. i. Nov. 8. 

2 At so little cost. J They intimate to our poet (as Lombard! well observes) 
the inconveniences to which his freedom of speech was about to expose him 
in the future course of his life. 



83— 106. HELL, Canto XVI. (83) 

Returning to behold the radiant stars, 

When thou with pleasure shalt retrace the past 1 , 

See that of us thou speak among mankind." 

This said, they broke the circle, and so swift 
Fled, that as pinions seem'd their nimble feet. 

Not in so short a time might one have said 
" Amen," as they had vanish'd. Straight my guide 
Pursued his track. I follow 'd : and small space 
Had we past onward, when the water's sound 
Was now so near at hand, that we had scarce 
Heard one another's speech for the loud din. 

E'en as the river 2 , that first holds its course 
Unmingled, from the Mount of Vesulo, 
On the left side of Apennine, toward 
The east, which Acquacheta higher up 
They call, ere it descend into the vale, 
At Forli 3 , by that name no longer known, 
Rebellows o'er Saint Benedict, roll'd on 
From the Alpine summit down a precipice, 
Where space 4 enough to lodge a thousand spreads ; 
Thus downward from a craggy steep we found 
That this dark wave resounded, roaring loud, 
So that the ear its clamour soon had stunn'd. 

I had a cord 5 that braced my girdle round, 

1 When thou with pleasure shalt retrace the past .] 

Quando ti giovera dicere io fui. 
So Tasso, G. L. c. xv. St. 38 : Quando mi giovera narrar altrui 

Le novita yedute, e dire ; io mi. 

2 E'en as the river. ,] He compares the fall of Phlegethon to that of the 
Montone (a river in Romagna) from the Apennine above the Abbey of St. 
Benedict. All the other streams, that rise between the sources of the Po 
and the Montone, and fall from the left side of the Apennine, join the Po, 
and accompany it to the sea. 3 At Forli.'] Because there it loses the 
name of Acquacheta, and takes that of Montone. 4 Where space.] 
Either because the abbey was capable of containing more than those who 
occupied it, or because (says Landino) the lords of that territory, as Boc- 
caccio related on the authority of the abbot, had intended to build a castle 
near the water-fall, and to collect within its walls the population of the 
neighbouring villages. 5 A cord.] This passage, as it is confessed by 
Landino, involves a fiction sufficiently obscure. His own attempt to unravel 
it does not much lessen the difficult} 7 . That which Lombardi has made is 
something better. It is believed that our poet, in the earlier part of his life, 
had entered into the order of St. Francis. By observing the rules of that 
profession, he had designed to mortify his carnal appetites, or, as he expresses 
it, " to take the painted leopard" (that animal, which, as we have seen in a 
note to the first Canto, represented Pleasure) " with this cord." This part 

G 2 



(34) THE VISION. 107—130. 

Wherewith I erst had thought fast bound to take 
The painted leopard. This when I had all 
Unloosen'd from me (so my master bade) 
I gather'd up, and streteh'd it forth to him. 
Then to the right he turn'd, and from the brink 
Standing few paces distant, cast it down 
Into the deep abyss. " And somewhat strange," 
Thus to myself I spake, " signal so strange 
Betokens, which my guide with earnest eye 
Thus follows." Ah ! what caution must men use 
With those who look not at the deed alone, 
But spy into the thoughts with subtle skill 1 . 

" Quickly shall come," he said, "what I expect ; 
Thine eye discover quickly that, whereof 
Thy thought is dreaming." Ever to that truth 2 , 
Which but the semblance of a falsehood wears, 
A man, if possible, should bar his lip ; 
Since, although blameless, he incurs reproach. 
But silence here were vain ; and by these notes 3 , 
Which now I sing, reader, I swear to thee, 
So may they favour find to latest times ! 
That through the gross and murky air I spied 
A shape come swimming up, that might have quell'd 
The stoutest heart with wonder ; in such guise 

of the habit lie is now desired by Virgil to take off ; and it is thrown down 
the gulf, to allure Geryon to them with the expectation of earning down one 
who had cloaked his iniquities under the garb of penitence and self-mortifi- 
cation ; and thus (to apply to Dante on this occasion the words of Milton) 
He, as Franciscan, thought to pass disguised. 

1 But spy into the thoughts icith subtle skill.] 
Sorrise "Cranio, che per entro vede 

Gli altrui pensier col senno. 3Ie?izini, Sonetto. Mentre io dormia. 

2 Ever to that truth.'] This memorable apophthegm is repeated by Luigi 
Pulci and Trissino : 

Sempre a quel ver, eh' ha faccia di menzogna, 

E piu senno tacer la lingua cheta, 

Che spesso senza colpa fa vergogna. Morgante Magg. c. xxiy. 

La verita, che par mensogna, 
Si doyrebbe tacer dalT uom ch' e saggio. Italia Lib. c. xyi. 

3 By these notes.] So Frezzi : 
Per queste rime mie, lettor, ti giuro. II Quadrir. lib. iii. cap. 16. 

In like manner, Pindar confirms his veracity by an oath : 

Nat fxa yap "Optcov, ijxav co£av. JS^em. xi. 30. 
which is imitated, as usual, by Chiabrera : 

Ed io lungo il Permesso 

Sacro alle Muse oblighero mia fede. Canz. Eroiche^ xliii. 75. 



131—134. HEI<L, Canto XVI. (85) 

As one returns, who hath been down to loose 
An anchor grappled fast against some rock, 
Or to aught else that in the salt wave lies, 
Who, upward springing, close draws in his feet. 



CANTO XVII. 



ARGUMENT. 

The monster Geryon is described; to whom while Virgil is speaking in 
order that he may cam' them both down to the next circle, Dante, by 
permission, goes a little further along the edge of the yoid, to descry the 
third species of sinners contained in this compartment, namely, those who 
have done violence to Art ; and then returning to his master, they both 
descend, seated on the back of Geryon. 

" Lo ! the fell monster l with the deadly sting, 
AVho passes mountains, breaks through fenced walls 
And firm embattled spears, and with his filth 
Taints all the world." Thus me my guide address'd, 
And beckon'd him, that he should come to shore, 
Near to the stony causeway's utmost edge. 

Forthwith that image vile of Fraud appear'd, 
His head and upper part exposed on land, 
But laid not on the shore his bestial train. 
His face the semblance of a just man's wore, 
So kind and gracious was its outward cheer ; 
The rest was serpent all : two shaggy claws 
Reach'd to the arm-pits ; and the back and breast, 
And either side, were painted o'er with nodes 
And orbits. Colours variegated more 
Nor Turks nor Tartars e'er on cloth of state 
"With interchangeable embroidery wove, 
Nor spread Arachne o'er her curious loom. 
As oft-times a light skiff, moor'd to the shore, 
Stands part in water, part upon the land ; 
Or, as where dwells the greedy German boor, 
The beaver settles, watching for his prey ; 
So on the rim, that fenced the sand with rock, 
Sat perch'd the fiend of evil. In the void 

1 The fell monster. .] Fraud. 



(86) 



THE VISION. 



25—59. 



Glancing, his tail upturn'd its venomous fork, 
With sting like scorpion's arm'd. Then thus my guide 
" Now need our way must turn few steps apart, 
Far as to that ill beast, who couches there," 

Thereat, toward the right our downward course 
We shaped, and, better to escape the flame 
And burning marie, ten paces on the verge 
Proceeded. Soon as we to him arrive, 
A little further on mine eye beholds 
A tribe of spirits, seated on the sand 
Near to the void. Forthwith my master spake : 
" That to the full thy knowledge may extend 
Of all this round contains, go now, and mark 
The mien these wear : but hold not long discourse. 
Till thou returnest, I with him meantime 
Will parley, that to us he may vouchsafe 
The aid of his strong shoulders." Thus alone, 
Yet forward on the extremity I paced 
Of that seventh circle, where the mournful tribe 
Were seated. At the eyes forth gush'd their pangs. 
Against the vapours and the torrid soil 
Alternately their shifting hands they plied. 
Thus use the dogs in summer still to ply 
Their jaws and feet by turns, when bitten sore 
By gnats, or flies, or gadflies swarming round. 

Noting the visages of some, who lay 
Beneath the pelting of that dolorous fire, 
One of them all I knew not ; but perceived, 
That pendent from his neck each bore a pouch l 
With colours and with emblems various mark'd, 
On which it seem' d as if their eye did feed. 

And when, amongst them, looking round I came, 
A yellow purse 2 I saw with azure wrought, 
That wore a lion's countenance and port. 
Then, still my sight pursuing its career, 



1 A pouch.'] A purse, whereon the armorial bearings of each were em- 
blazoned. According to Landino, onr Poet implies that the usurer can pre- 
tend to no other honour than such as he derives from his purse and his 
family. The description of persons by their heraldic insignia is remarkable 
both on the present and several other occasions in this poem. 

2 A yellow purse.] The arms of the Gianfigliazzi of Florence. 



60—85. HELL, Canto XVII. (87) 

Another 1 I beheld, than blood more red, 

A goose display of whiter wing than curd. 

And one, who bore a fat and azure swine 2 

Pictured on his white scrip, address'd me thus : 

" What dost thou in this deep ? Go now and know, 

Since yet thou livest, that my neighbour here 

Vitaliano 3 on my left shall sit. 

A Paduan with these Florentines am I. 

Oft-times they thunder in mine ears, exclaiming, 

c Oh ! haste that noble knight 4 , he who the pouch 

' With the three goats 5 will bring.' " This said, he 

The mouth, and loll'd the tongue out, like an ox [writhed 

That licks his nostrils. I, lest longer stay 

He ill might brook, who bade me stay not long, 

Backward my steps from those sad spirits turn'd. 

My guide already seated on the haunch 
Of the fierce animal I found ; and thus 
He me encouraged. " Be thou stout : be bold. 
Down such a steep flight must we now descend. 
Mount thou before : for, that no power the tail 
May have to harm thee, I will be i' th' midst." 

As one 6 , who hath an ague fit so near, 
His nails already are turn'd blue, and he 
Quivers all o'er, if he but eye the shade ; 
Such was my cheer at hearing of his words. 
But shame 7 soon interposed her threat, who makes 

1 Another.'] Those of the Ubbriachi, another Florentine family of high 
distinction. 2 A fat and azure sicine.~] The arms of the Scrovigni, a 

noble family of Padua. 3 Vitaliano.'] Vitaliano del Dent e, a Paduan. 

4 That noble knight.'] Giovanni Bujamonti, a Florentine usurer, the most 
infamous of his time. 5 Goats.] Monti, in his Proposta, had introduced 
a facetious dialogue, on the supposed mistake made in the interpretation of 
this word " Beechi" by the compilers of the Delia Crusca Dictionary, who 
translated it " goats," instead of " beaks." He afterwards saw his own 
error, and had the ingenuousness to confess it in the Appendix, p. 274. 
Having in the former editions of this work been betrayed into the same mis- 
understanding of my author, I cannot do less than follow so good an ex- 
ample, by acknowledging and correcting it. 6 As one.] Dante trembled 
with fear, like a man who, expecting the return of a quartan ague, shakes 
even at the sight of a place made cool by the shade. 7 But shame.] I 

have followed the reading in Vellutello's edition, 

Ma vergogna mi fe le sue minacce ; 
which appears preferable to the common one, 

Ma vergogna mi fer, &c. 
It is necessary that I should observe this, because it has been imputed to me 
as a mistake. 



(88) THE VISION. 86—126. 

The servant bold in presence of his lord. 

I settled me upon those shoulders huge, 
And would have said, but that the words to aid 
My purpose came not, " Look thou clasp me firm." 

But he whose succour then not first I proved, 
Soon as I mounted, in his arms aloft, 
Embracing, held me up ; and thus he spake : 
" Geryon ! now move thee : be thy wheeling gyres 
Of ample circuit, easy thy descent. 
Think on the unusual burden thou sustain'st." 

As a small vessel, backening out from land, 
Her station quits ; so thence the monster loosed, 
And, when he felt himself at large, turn'd round 
There, where the breast had been, his forked tail. 
Thus, like an eel, outstretch'd at length he steer'd, 
Gathering the air up with retractile claws. 

Not greater was the dread, when Phaeton 
The reins let drop at random, whence high heaven, 
Whereof signs yet appear, was wrapt in fiames ; 
Nor when ill-fated Icarus perceived, 
By liquefaction of the scalded wax, 
The trusted pennons loosen'd from his loins, 
His sire exclaiming loud, " 111 way thou keep'st," 
Than was my dread, when round me on each part 
The air I view'd, and other object none 
Save the fell beast. He, slowly sailing, wheels 
His downward motion, unobserved of me, 
But that the wind, arising to my face, 
Breathes on me from below. Now on our right 
I heard the cataract beneath us leap 
With hideous crash ; whence bending down to explore, 
New terror I conceived at the steep plunge ; 
For flames I saw, and wailings smote mine ear : 
So that, all trembling, close I crouch'd my limbs, 
And then distinguished, unperceived before, 
By the dread torments that on every side 
Drew nearer, how our downward course we wound. 

As falcon, that hath long been on the wing, 
But lure nor bird hath seen, while in despair 
The falconer cries, " Ah me ! thou stoop'st to earth/ 
Wearied descends, whence nimbly he arose 



127—132. HELL, Canto XVII. (89) 

In many an airy wheel, and lighting sits 
At distance from his lord in angry mood ; 
So Geryon lighting places us on foot 
Low down at base of the deep-furrow'd rock, 
And, of his burden there discharged, forthwith 
Sprang forward, like an arrow from the string. 



CANTO XVIII. 



ARGUMENT. 

The Poet describes the situation and form of the eighth circle, divided into 
ten gulfs, which contain as many different descriptions of fraudulent sin- 
ners ; but in the present Canto he treats only of two sorts : the first is of 
those who, either for their own pleasure, or for that of another, have se- 
duced any woman from her duty ; and these are scourged of demons in 
the first gulf: the other sort is of flatterers, who in the second gulf are 
condemned to remain immersed in filth. 

There is a place within the depths of hell 

Call'd Malebolge, all of rock dark-stain'd 

With hue ferruginous, e'en as the steep 

That round it circling winds. Right in the midst 

Of that abominable region yawns 

A spacious gulf profound, whereof the frame 

Due time shall tell. The circle, that remains, 

Throughout its round, between the gulf and base 

Of the high craggy banks, successive forms 

Ten bastions, in its hollow bottom raised. 

As where, to guard the walls, full many a foss 
Begirds some stately castle, sure defence l 
Affording to the space within ; so here 

1 Sw'e defence.] La parte dov' e' son rendon sicura. 
This is the common reading ; besides which there are two others : 
La parte dove il sol rende figura ; 
and, La parte dov' ei son rende figura : 
the former of which two, Lombardi says, is found in Daniello's edition, 
printed at Venice, 1568 ; in that printed in the same city with the com- 
mentaries of Landino and Vellutello, 1572; and also in some MSS. The 
latter, which has very much the appearance of being genuine, was adopted 
by Lombardi himself, on the authority of a text supposed to be in the 
hand-writing of Filippo Villani, but so defaced by the alterations made in 
it by some less skilful hand, that the traces of the old ink were with diffi- 
culty recovered; and it has, since the publication of Lombardi's edition, 
been met with also in the Monte Casino MS. Monti is decided in favour 
of Lombardi' s reading, and Biagioli opposed to it. 



(90) 



THE VISION 



14—44. 



Were model'd these : and as like fortresses, 
E'en from their threshold to the brink without, 
Are fiank'd with bridges ; from the rock's low base 
Thus flinty paths advanced, that 'cross the moles 
And dikes struck onward far as to the gulf, 
That in one bound collected cuts them off. 
Such was the place, wherein we found ourselves 
From Geryon's back dislodged. The bard to left 
Held on his way, and I behind him moved. 

On our right hand new misery I saw, 
New pains, new executioners of wrath, 
That swarming peopled the first chasm. Below 
Were naked sinners. Hitherward they came, 
Meeting our faces, from the middle point ; 
With us beyond *, but with a larger stride. 
E'en thus the Romans 2 , when the year returns 
Of Jubilee, with better speed to rid 
The thronging multitudes, their means devise 
For such as pass the bridge ; that on one side 
All front toward the castle, and approach 
Saint Peter's fane, on the other towards the mount. 

Each diverse way, along the grisly rock, 
Horn'd demons I beheld, with lashes huge, 
That on their back unmercifully smote. 
Ah ! how they made them bound at the first stripe ! 
None for the second waited, nor the third. 

Meantime, as on I pass'd, one met my sight, 
Whom soon as view'd, " Of him," cried I, " not yet 
Mine eye hath had his fill." I therefore stay'd 3 
My feet to scan him, and the teacher kind 
Paused with me, and consented I should walk 

1 With us beyond.'] Beyond the middle point they tended the same way 
with us, but their pace was quicker than ours. 2 E'en thus the Romans.] 
In the year 1300, Pope Boniface VIII., to remedy the inconvenience occa- 
sioned by the press of people who were passing oyer the bridge of St. Angelo 
during the time of the Jubilee, caused it to be divided lengthwise by a par- 
tition; and ordered, that all those who were going to St. Peter's should 
keep one side, and those returning the other. G. Villani, who was present, 
describes the order that was preserved, lib. viii. c. xxxvi. It was at this 
time, and on this occasion, as the honest historian tells us, that he first con- 
ceived the design of " compiling his book." 3 / therefore stay'd.] " I 
piedi afiissi " is the reading of the Nidobeatina edition ; but Lombardi is un- 
der an error, when he tells us that the other editions have " gli occhi amssi "; 
for Vellutello's at least, printed in 1544, agrees with the Nidobeatina. 



45—77. HELL, Canto XVIII. (M) 

Backward a space ; and the tormented spirit, 
Who thought to hide him, bent his visage down. 
But it avail'd him nought ; for I exclaim'd : 
" Thou who dost cast thine eye upon the ground, 
Unless thy features do belie thee much, 
Venedico l art thou. But what brings thee 
Into this bitter seasoning 2 ? " He replied : 
" Unwillingly I answer to thy words. 
But thy clear speech, that to my mind recals 
The world I once inhabited, constrains me. 
Know then 't was I who led fair Ghisola 
To do the Marquis' will, however fame 
The shameful tale have bruited. Nor alone 
Bologna hither sendeth me to mourn. 
Rather with us the place is so o'erthrong'd, 
That not so many tongues this day are taught, 
Betwixt the Reno and Savena's stream, 
To answer Sipa 3 in their country's phrase. 
And if of that securer proof thou need, 
Remember but our craving thirst for gold." 

Him speaking thus, a demon with his thong 
Struck and exclaim'd, " Away, corrupter ! here 
Women are none for sale." Forthwith I join'd 
My escort, and few paces thence we came 
To where a rock forth issued from the bank. 
That easily ascended, to the right 
Upon its splinter turning, we depart 
From those eternal barriers. When arrived 
Where, underneath, the gaping arch lets pass 
The scourged souls : " Pause here," the teacher said, 
" And let these others miserable now 
Strike on thy ken ; faces not yet beheld, 
For that together they with us have walk'd." 



1 Venedico.'] Venedico Caccianimico, a Bolognese, who prevailed on his 
sister Ghisola to prostitute herself to Obizzo da Este, Marquis of Ferrara, 
whom we have seen among the tyrants, Canto xii. 2 Seasoning. .] Salse. 
Monti, in his Proposta, following Benvenuto da Imola, takes this to be the 
name of a place. If so, a play must have been intended on the word, which 
cannot be preserved in English. 3 To answer Sipa.] He denotes Bo- 
logna by its situation between the rivers Savena to the east, and Reno to 
the west of that city ; and by a peculiarity of dialect, the use of the affirma- 
tive sipa instead either of si, or, as Monti will have it, of sia. 



(92) THE VISION. 78—115. 

From the old bridge we eyed the pack, who came 
From the other side toward us, like the rest, 
Excoriate from the lash. My gentle guide, 
By me unquestion'd, thus his speech resumed : 
" Behold that lofty shade, who this way tends, 
And seems too woe-begone to drop a tear. 
How yet the regal aspect he retains ! 
Jason is he, whose skill and prowess won 
The ram from Colchos. To the Lemnian isle 
His passage thither led him, when those bold 
And pitiless women had slain all their males. 
There he with tokens and fair witching words 
Hypsipyle 1 beguiled, a virgin young, 
Who first had all the rest herself beguiled. 
Impregnated, he left her there forlorn. 
Such is the guilt condemns him to this pain. 
Here too Medea's injuries are avenged. 
All bear him company, who like deceit 
To his have practised. And thus much to know 
Of the first vale suffice thee, and of those 
Whom its keen torments urge." Now had we come 
Where, crossing the next pier, the straiten 'd path 
Bestrides its shoulders to another arch. 

Hence, in the second chasm we heard the ghost-. 
Who gibber in low melancholy sounds, 
With wide-stretch'd nostrils snort, and on themselves 
Smite with their palms. Upon the banks a scurf, 
From the foul steam condensed, encrusting hung, 
That held sharp combat with the sight and smell. 

So hollow is the depth, that from no part, 
Save on the summit of the rocky span, 
Could I distinguish aught. Thus far we came ; 
And thence I saw, within the foss below, 
A crowd immersed in ordure, that appear'd 
Draff of the human body. There beneath 
Searching with eye inquisitive, I mark'd 
One with his head so grimed, 't were hard to deem 
If he were clerk or layman. Loud he cried : 

1 Hypsipyle.'] See Apollonius Rhodius, 1. i. and Valerius Flaccus, I. ii. 
Hypsipyle deceived the other women, by concealing her father Thoas, when 
they had agreed to put all their males to death. 



116—133. HELL, Canto XVIII. (93) 

" Why greedily thus bendest more on me, 
Than on these other filthy ones, thy ken ? " 

" Because, if true my memory," I replied, 
" I heretofore have seen thee with dry locks ; 
And thou Alessio 1 art, of Lucca sprung. 
Therefore than all the rest I scan thee more." 

Then beating on his brain, these words he spake : 
" Me thus low down my flatteries have sunk, 
Wherewith I ne'er enough could glut my tongue." 

My leader thus : "A little further stretch 
Thy face, that thou the visage well mayst note 
Of that besotted, sluttish courtezan, 
Who there doth rend her with defiled nails, 
Now crouching down, now risen on her feet. 
Thai's 2 is this, the harlot, whose false lip 
Answer'd her doting paramour that ask'd, 
' Thankest me much ! ' — ' Say rather, wondrously,' 
And, seeing this, here satiate be our view." 



CANTO XIX. 



ARGUMENT. 

They come to the third gulf, wherein are punished those who have been 
guilty of simony. These are fixed with the head downwards in certain 
apertures, so that no more of them than the legs appears without, and on 
the soles of their feet are seen burning names. Dante is taken down by his 
guide into the bottom of the gulf; and there finds Pope Nicholas the Fifth, 
whose evil deeds, together with those of other pontiffs, are bitterly repre- 
hended. Virgil then carries him up again to the arch, which affords them 
a passage over the following gulf. 

Woe to thee, Simon Magus ! woe to you, 
His wretched followers ! who the things of God, 
Which should be wedded unto goodness, them, 
Rapacious as ye are, do prostitute 
For gold and silver in adultery. 

1 Alessio.] Alessio, of an ancient and considerable family in Lucca, called 
the Interminei. 2 Thais.] He alludes to that passage in the Eunuchus of 
Terence, where Thraso asks if Thais was obliged to him for the present he 
had sent her; and Gnatho replies, that she had expressed her obligation 
in the most forcible terms. 

T. Magnas vero agere gratias Thais mihi ? 

G. Ingentes. Eun. &. iii. s. i. 






(94) THE VISION. 6—41. 

Now must the trumpet sound for you, since yours 
Is the third chasm. Upon the following vault 
We now had mounted, where the rock impends 
Directly o'er the centre of the foss. 

Wisdom Supreme ! how wonderful the art, 
Which thou dost manifest in heaven, in earth, 
And in the evil world, how just a meed 
Allotting by thy virtue unto all. 

I saw the livid stone, throughout the sides 
And in its bottom full of apertures, 
All equal in their width, and circular each. 
Nor ample less nor larger they appear'd 
Than, in Saint John's fair dome l of me beloved, 
Those framed to hold the pure baptismal streams, 
One of the which I brake, some few years past, 
To save a whelming infant : and be this 
A seal to undeceive whoever doubts 
The motive of my deed. From out the mouth 
Of every one emerged a sinner's feet, 
And of the legs high upward as the calf. 
The rest beneath was hid. On either foot 
The soles were burning ; whence the flexile joints 
Glanced with such violent motion, as had snapt 
Asunder cords or twisted withs. As flame, 
Feeding on unctuous matter, glides along 
The surface, scarcely touching where it moves ; 
So here, from heel to point, glided the flames. 

" Master ! say who is he, than all the rest 
Glancing in fiercer agony, on whom 
A ruddier flame doth prey ? " I thus inquired. 

" If thou be willing," he replied, " that I 
Carry thee down, where least the slope bank falls, 
He of himself shall tell thee, and his wrongs." 

I then : "As pleases thee, to me is best. 
Thou art my lord ; and know'st that ne'er I quit 
Thy will : what silence hides, that knowest thou." 

1 Saint John's fair dome.'] The apertures in the rock were of the same 
dimensions as the fonts of St. John the Baptist at Florence ; one of which, 
Dante says, he had broken, to rescue a child that was playing near and fell 
in. He intimates, that the motive of his breaking the font had been ma- 
liciously represented by his enemies. 



42—71. HELL, Canto XIX. (95) 

Thereat on the fourth pier we came, we turn'd, 
And on our left descended to the depth, 
A narrow strait, and perforated close. 
Nor from his side my leader set me down, 
Till to his orifice he brought, whose limb 
Quivering express'd his pang. " Whoe'er thou art, 
Sad spirit ! thus reversed, and as a stake 
Driven in the soil," I in these words began ; 
" If thou be able, utter forth thy voice." 

There stood I like the friar, that doth shrive 
A wretch for murder doom'd, who, e'en when fix'd 1 , 
Calleth him back, whence death awhile delays. 

He shouted : " Ha ! already standest there ? 
Already standest there, O Boniface 2 ! 
By many a year the writing play'd me false. 
So early dost thou surfeit with the wealth, 
For which thou fearedst not in guile 3 to take 
The lovely lady, and then mangle her ? " 

I felt as those who, piercing not the drift 
Of answer made them, stand as if exposed 
In mockery, nor know what to reply; 
When Virgil thus admonish'd : " Tell him quick. 
' I am not he, not he whom thou believest.' " 

And I, as was enjoin'd me, straight replied. 

That heard, the spirit all did wrench his feet, 
And, sighing, next in woeful accent spake : 
" What then of me requirest ? If to know 
So much imports thee, who I am, that thou 
Hast therefore down the bank descended, learn 
That in the mighty mantle I was robed 4 , 

1 When fix'd. ~\ The commentators on Boccaccio's Decameron, p. 72. ediz. 
Giunti, 1573, cite the words of the statute by which murderers were sen- 
tenced thus to suffer at Florence. " Assassinus trahatur ad caudam nmli 
seu asini usque ad locum justitiae ; et ibidem plantetur capite deorsiun, ita 
quod moriatur. " Let the assassin be dragged at the tail of a mule or ass to 
the place of justice ; and there let him be set in the ground with his face 
downward, so that he die." a O Boniface /] The spirit mistakes Dante 
for Boniface VIII., who was then alive ; and who he did not expect would 
have arrived so soon, in consequence, as it should seem, of a prophecy, which 
predicted the death of that pope at a later period. Boniface died in 1303. 

3 In guile. ,] " Thou didst presume to arrive by fraudulent means at the 
papal power, and afterwards to abuse it." 4 hi the mighty mantle I was 
robed.] Nicholas III. of the Orsini family, whom the Poet therefore calls 
" figliuol dell' orsa," " son of the she-bear?' He died in 128.1. 



(96) THE VISION. 72—103. 

And of a she-bear was indeed the son, 
So eager to advance my whelps, that there 
My having in my purse above I stow'd, 
And here myself. Under my head are dragg'd 
The rest, my predecessors in the guilt 
Of simony. Stretch' d at their length, they lie 
Along an opening in the rock. 'Midst them 
I also low shall fall, soon as he comes, 
For whom I took thee, when so hastily 
I question' d. But already longer time 
Hath past, since my soles kindled, and I thus 
Upturn' d have stood, than is his doom to stand 
Planted with fiery feet. For after him, 
One yet of deeds more ugly shall arrive, 
From forth the west, a shepherd without law ', 
Fated to cover both his form and mine. 
He a new Jason 2 shall be call'd, of whom 
In Maccabees we read ; and favour such 
As to that priest his king indulgent show'd, 
Shall be of France's monarch 3 shown to him." 

I know not if I here too far presumed, 
But in this strain I answer* d : " Tell me now 
What treasures from Saint Peter at the first 
Our Lord demanded, when he put the keys 
Into his charge ? Surely he ask'd no more 
But ' Follow me !' Nor Peter 4 , nor the rest, 
Or gold or silver of Matthias took, 
When lots were cast upon the forfeit place 
Of the condemned soul 5 . Abide thou then ; 
Thy punishment of right is merited : 
And look thou well to that ill-gotten coin, 
Which against Charles 6 thy hardihood inspired. 

1 From forth the west, a shepherd ivithont law.] Bertrandde Got, Arch- 
bishop of Bourdeaux, who succeeded to the pontificate in 1305, and assumed 
the title of Clement Y. He transferred the holy see to Avignon in 1308, 
(where it remained till 1376,) and died in 1314. 2 A new Jason, .] " But 
after the death of Seleucus, M r hen Antiochus, called Epiphanes, took the 
kingdom, Jason, the brother of Onias, laboured underhand to be high-priest, 
promising unto the king, by intercession, three hundred and threescore talents 
of silver, and of another revenue eighty talents." Maccab. b. ii. ch. iv. 7, 8. 
3 Of France' s monarch^] Philip IV. of France. See G. Yillani, lib. viii. 
c. lxxx. 4 Nor Peter.] Acts of the Apostles, ch. i. 26. 5 The con- 
demned soicl.] Judas. G Against Charles.] Nicholas III. was enraged 



104—109. HELL, Canto XIX. (97) 

If reverence of the keys restraint me not, 
Which thou in happier time didst hold, I yet 
Severer speech might use. Your avarice 
O'ercasts the world with mourning, under foot l 
Treading the good, and raising bad men up. 
Of shepherds like to you, the Evangelist 2 

against Charles I. King of Sicily, because he rejected with scorn a proposi- 
tion made by that pope for an alliance between their families. See G. 
Villani, Hist. lib. vii. c. liv. 

1 Underfoot.'] - So shall the world go on, 

To good malignant, to bad men benign. 

Milton, P. L. b. xii. 538. 

2 The Evangelist.] Rev. c. xvii. 1, 2, 3. — Petrarch, in one of his Epis- 
tles, had his eye on these lines : " Gaude (inquam) et ad aliquid utilis in- 
venta gloriare bonorum hostis et malorum hospes, atque asylum pessima 
rerum Babylon feris, Rhodani ripis imposita, famosa dicam an infamis 
meretrix, fornicata cum regibus terrce. Ilia equidem ipsa es quam in spiritu 
sacer vidit Evangelista. Ilia eadem, inquam, es, non alia, sedens super 
aquas multas, she ad littora tribus cincta fluminibus sive rerum atque 
divitiarum turba mortalium quibus lasciviens ac secura insides opum i?n?ne- 
mor ceternarum sive ut idem qui vidit, exposuit. Popnli et gentes et lin- 
guae aquae sunt, super quas meretrix sedes, recognosce habitum," &c. Pe- 
trarchce Opera, ed.fol. Basil. 1554. Epist. sine titulo Liber, ep. xvi. p. 729. 
The text is here probably corrupted. The construction certainly may be 
rendered easier by omitting the ad before littora, and substituting a comma 
for a full stop after exposuit. With all the respect that is due to a venerable 
prelate and truly learned critic, I cannot but point out a mistake he has 
fallen into, relating to this passage, when he observes, that " Numberless 
passages in the writings of Petrarch speak of Rome under the name of Ba- 
bylon. But an equal stress is not to be laid on all these. It should be re- 
membered, that the popes, in Petrarch's time, resided at Avignon, greatly to 
the disparagement of themselves, as he thought, and especially of Rome; of 
which this singular man was little less than idolatrous. The situation of the 
place, surrounded by waters, and his splenetic concern for the exiled church, 
(for under this idea he painted to himself the pope's migration to the banks 
of Avignon,) brought to his mind the condition of the Jewish church in the 
Babylonian captivity. And this parallel was all, perhaps, that he meant to 
insinuate in most of those passages. But when he applies the prophecies to 
Rome, as to the Apocalyptic Babylon, (as he clearly does in the epistle under 
consideration,) his meaning is not equivocal, and we do him but justice to 
give him an honourable place among the testes veritatis." An Intro- 
duction to the Study of the Prophecies, §c, by Richard Hurd, D. D. serm. 
vii. p. 239. note y. ed. 1772. Now, a reference to the words printed in 
Italics, which the Bishop of Worcester has omitted in his quotation, will 
make it sufficiently evident, that Avignon, and not Rome, is here alluded 
to by Petrarch. The application that is made of these prophecies by two 
men so eminent for their learning and sagacity as Dante and Petrarch is, 
however, very remarkable, and must be satisfactory to those who have re- 
nounced the errors and corruptions of the papacy. Such applications 
were indeed frequent in the middle ages, as may be seen in the " Ser- 
mons" above referred to. Balbo observes, that it is not Rome, as most 
erroneously interpreted, but Avignon, and the court there, that is termed 
Babylon by Dante and Petrarch. Yita di Dante, v. ii. p. 103. 

H 



(98), 



THE VISION. 



110—129. 






Was ware, when her, who sits upon the wares, 
With kings in filthy whoredom he beheld ; 
She who with seven heads tower' d at her birth, 
And from ten horns her proof of glory drew, 
Long as her spouse in virtue took delight. 
Of gold and silver ye have made your god, 
Differing wherein from the idolater, 
But that he worships one, a hundred ye ? 
Ah, Constantine l ! to how much ill gave birth, 
Not thy conversion, but that plenteous dower, 
"Which the first wealthy Father gain'd from thee." 

Meanwhile, as thus I sung, he, whether wrath 
Or conscience smote him, violent upsprang 
Spinning on either sole. I do believe 
My teacher well was pleased, with so composed 
A lip he listen' d ever to the sound 
Of the true words I utter' d. In both arms 
He caught, and, to his bosom lifting me, 
Upward retraced the way of his descent. 

Nor weary of his weight, he press 'd me close, 

1 Ah, Constantine /] He alludes to the pretended gift of the Lateran by 
Constantine to Sylyester, of which Dante himself seems to imply a doubt, in 
his treatise "De Monarchic." — "Ergo scindere Iniperiuni, Imperatori non 
licet. Si ergo aliquse dignitates per Constantinum essent alienatae (ut di- 
cunt) ab Imperio," &c. lib. iii. " Therefore to make a rent in the empire 
exceeds the lawful power of the emperor himself. If, then, some dignities 
were by Constantine alienated (as they report) from the empire, &c." In 
another part of the same treatise he speaks of the alienation with less doubt 
indeed, but not with less disapprobation: " felicem populum! O Auso- 
niam te gloriosam! si vel numquam infirmator imperii tui extitisset; yel 
numquam sua pia intentio ipsuni fefellisset." — " happy people ! glori- 
ous Italy ! if either he who thus weakened thine empire had neTer been 
born, or had never suffered his own pious intentions to mislead him." Lib. 
ii. ad finem. The gift is by Ariosto Yery humorously placed in the moon, 
among the things lost or abused on earth : 

Di varj fiori ad un gran monte passa, 

Ch' ebber gia buono odore, or puzzan forte, 

Questo era il dono (se pero dir lece) 

Che Costantino al buon Siivestro fece. Orl. Fur. c. xxxiy. st. 80. 
Milton has translated both this passage and that in the text. Prose 
Works, vol. i. p. 11. ed. 1753. 

Ah, Constantine ! of how much ill was cause 

Not thy conversion, but those rich domains 

That the first wealthy pope received of thee. 

Then pass'd he to a flowery mountain green, 

Which once smelt sweet, now stinks as odiously ; 

This was that gift, if you the truth will have, 

That Constantine to sood Silvester save. 



130—135. HELL, Canto XIX. (99) 

Till to the summit of the rock we came, 
Our passage from the fourth to the fifth pier. 
His cherish' d burden there gently he placed 
Upon the rugged roek and steep, a path 
Not easy for the clambering goat to mount. 
Thence to my view another vale appear' d. 



CANTO XX. 

ARGUMENT. 

The Poet relates the punishment of such as presumed, while living, to pre 
diet future events. It is to have their faces reversed and set the contrary 
way on their limbs, so that, being deprived of the power to see before 
them, they are constrained ever to walk backwards. Aniongfthese Virgil 
points out to him Amphiaraiis, Tiresias, Aruns, and Manto, (from the 
mention of whom he takes occasion to speak of the origin of Mantua) to- 
gether with several others, who had practised the arts of divination and 
astrology. 

And now the verse proceeds to torments new, 
Fit argument of this the twentieth strain 
Of the first song, whose awful theme records 
The spirits whelm'd in woe. Earnest I look'd 
Into the depth, that open'd to my view, 
Moisten' d with tears of anguish, and beheld 
A tribe, that came along the hollow vale, 
In silence weeping : such their step as walk 
Quires, chanting solemn litanies, on earth. 

As on them more direct mine eye descends, 
Each wonderously seem'd to be reversed l 
At the neck-bone, so that the countenance 
Was from the reins averted ; and because 
None might before him look, they were compel? d 
To advance with backward gait. Thus one perhaps 
Hath been by force of palsy clean transposed, 
But I ne'er saw it nor believe it so. 

Now, reader ! think within thyself, so God 



Reversed.]- But very uncouth sight was to behold 
How he did fashion his untoward pace ; 
For as he forward moved his footing old, 
So backward still was turn'd his wrinkled face ; 
Unlike to men, who, ever as they trace, 
Both feet and face one way are wont to lead. 

Spenser, Faery Queen, b. i. c. viii. st. 31. 
H 2 



(100) THE VISION. 19— 3S. 

Fruit of thy reading give thee ! how I long 
Could keep my visage dry l 9 when I beheld 
Near me our form distorted in such guise, 
That on the hinder parts fallen from the face 
The tears down-streaming roll'd. Against a rock 
I leant and wept, so that my guide exclaim' d : 
" What, and art thou, too, witless as the rest ? 
Here pity most doth show herself alive, 
When she is dead. What guilt exceedeth his, 
Who with Heaven's judgment in his passion strives ? 
liaise up thy head, raise up, and see the man 
Before whose eyes 2 earth gaped in Thebes, when all 
Cried out ' Amphiaraus, whither rushest ? 
< Why leavest thou the war ? ' He not the less 
Fell ruining 3 far as to Minos down, 
Whose grapple none eludes. Lo ! how he makes 
The breast his shoulders ; and who once too far 
Before him wish'd to see, now backward looks, 
And treads reverse his path. Tiresias 4 note, 
Who semblance changed, when woman he became 

i How I long 

Could keep my visage dry.~] 

Sight so deform what heart of man could long 
Dry-eyed behold ? Adam could not, but wept. 

Milton, P. L. b. xi. 495. 

2 Before whose eyes.'] Amphiaraus, one of the seven kings who besieged 
Thebes. He is said to have been swallowed up by an opening of the earth. 
See Lidgate's Storie of Thebes, part iii. where it is told how the " Bishop 
Amphiaraiis " fell down to hell : 

And thus the devill, for his outrages* 
Like his desert payed him his wages. 
A different reason, for his being doomed thus to perish, is assigned by 
Pindar : 

6 d* ' AfMpiapri'i, &c. Nem. ix. Or ever on thy back the spear 
For thee, Amphiaraus, earth, Of Periclymenus impress'd 

By Jove's all-riving thunder cleft, A wound to shame thy warlike breast. 
Her mighty bosom opened wide, For struck with panic fear 

Thee and thy plunging steeds to hide, The gods' own children flee. 

3 Ruining.] " Ruinare." Hence, perhaps, Milton, P. L. b. vi. 868 : 

Heaven ruining from heaven. 

4 Tiresias.] Duo magnorum viridi coeuntia sylva 

Corpora serpentum baculi violaverat ictu, 
Deque viro factus (mirabile) foemina, septem 
Egerat autumnos. Octavo rursus eosdem 
Vidit. Et, est vestrae si tanta potentia plagse, 
Nunc quoque vos feriam. Percussis anguibus isdem 
Forma prior rediit, genitivaque venit imago. 

Ovid. Met. lib. iii, 



39—62. HELL, Cakto XX. (101) 

Of male, through every limb transform'd ; and then 
Once more behoved him with his rod to strike 
The two entwining serpents, ere the plumes, 
That mark'd the better sex, might shoot again. 

" Aruns *, with rere his belly facing, comes. 
On Luni's mountains 'midst the marbles white, 
Where delves Carrara's hind, who wons beneath, 
A cavern was his dwelling, whence the stars 
And main-sea wide in boundless view he held. 

" The next, whose loosen'd tresses overspread^ 
Her bosom, which thou seest not (for each hair 
On that side grows) was Manto 2 , she who search'd 
Through many regions, and at length her seat 
Fix'd in my native land : whence a short space 
My words detain thy audience. When her sire 
From life departed, and in servitude 
The city dedicate to Bacchus mourn'd, 
Long time she went a wanderer through the world. 
Aloft in Italy's delightful land 
A lake there lies, at foot of that proud Alp 
That o'er the Tyrol locks Germania in, 
Its name Benacus, from whose ample breast 
A thousand springs, methinks, and more, between 
Camonica 3 and Garda, issuing forth, 

1 Aru?is.~\ Aruns is said to have dwelt in the mountains of Luni, (from 
whence that territory is still called Lunigiana.) above Carrara, celebrated 
for its marble. Lucan, Phars. lib. i. 575. So Boccaccio, in the Fiammetta, 
lib. iii. : "Quale Arunte," &c. "Like Aruns, who amidst the white 
marbles of Luni contemplated the celestial bodies and their motions." Com- 
pare Fazio degli Uberti, Dittamondo, 1. iii. cap. vi. 2 Manto.1 The 
daughter of Tiresias of Thebes, a city dedicated to Bacchus. From Manto, 
Mantua, the country of Yirgil, derives its name. The Poet proceeds to de- 
scribe the situation of that place. But see the note to Purgatory, canto 
xxii. v. 112. 3 Camonica.~\ Lombardi, instead of 

Fra Garda, e val Camonica e Apennino, 
reads Fra Garda e val Camonica Pennino, 
from the Xidobeatina edition, (to which he might have added that of Yellu- 
tello in 1544,) and two MSS., all of which omit the second conjunction, the 
only part of the alteration that affects the sense. I have re-translated the 
passage, which in the former editions stood thus : 

which a thousand rills 

Methinks, and more, water between the vale 

Camonica and Garda, and the height 

Of Apennine remote. 
It should be added, that Ycllutello reads " Yaldimonica" for " Yal Ca- 
monica " ; but which of these is right remains to be determined by a colla- 



(102) THE VISION. 63— 94. 

Water the Apennine. There is a spot l 
At midway of that lake, where he who bears 
Of Trento's flock the pastoral staff, with him 
Of Brescia, and the Veronese, might each 
Passing that way his benediction give. 
A garrison of goodly site and strong 2 
Peschiera 3 stands, to awe with front opposed 
The Bergamese and Brescian, whence the shore 
More slope each way descends. There, whatsoe'er 
Benacus' bosom holds not, tumbling o'er 
Down falls, and winds a river flood beneath 
Through the green pastures. Soon as in his course 
The stream makes head, Benacus then no more 
They call the name, but Mincius, till at last 
Reaching Governo, into Po he falls. 
Not far his course hath run, when a wide flat 
It finds, which overstretching as a marsh 
v_ It covers, pestilent in summer oft. 

Hence journeying, the savage maiden saw 
Midst of the fen a territory waste 
And naked of inhabitants. To shun 
All human converse, here she with her slaves, 
Plying her arts, remain'd, and lived, and left 
Her body tenantless. Thenceforth the tribes, 
Who round were scatter'd, gathering to that place, 
Assembled ; for its strength was great, enclosed 
On all parts by the fen. On those dead bones 
They rear'd themselves a city, for her sake 
Calling it Mantua, who first chose the spot, 
Nor ask'd another omen for the name ; 
Wherein more numerous the people dwelt, 
Ere Casalodi's madness 4 by deceit 

tion of editions and MSS., and still more perhaps by a view of the country in 
the neighbourhood of the lake, (now called the Lago di Garda,) with a refer- 
ence to this passage. * There is a spot.'] Prato di Fame, where the dio- 
ceses of Trento, Verona, and Brescia meet. 

2 A garrison of goodly site and strong ] 

Gaza, bello e forte arnese 
Da fronteggiar i regni di Soria. Tasso, Ger. Lib. c. i. st. 67. 

3 Peschiera.] A garrison situated to the south of the lake, where it 
empties itself and forms the Mincius. 4 Casalodi's ?nad?iess.] Alberto da 
Casalodi, who had got possession of Mantua, was persuaded, by Pinamonte 
Buonacossi, that he might ingratiate himself with the people, by banishing 
to their own castles the nobles, who were obnoxious to them. No sooner 



95—114. HELL, Canto XX. (103) 

Was wrong'd of Pinamonte. If thou hear 
Henceforth another origin ! assign'd 
Of that my country, I forewarn thee now, 
That falsehood none beguile thee of the truth." 

I answer'd, " Teacher, I conclude thy words 
So certain, that all else shall be to me 
As embers lacking life. But now of these, 
Who here proceed, instruct me, if thou see 
Any that merit more especial note. 
For thereon is my mind alone intent." 

He straight replied : " That spirit, from whose cheek 
The beard sweeps o'er his shoulders brown, what time 
Graecia was emptied of her males, that scarce 
The cradles were supplied, the seer was he 
In Aulis, who with Calchas gave the sign 
When first to cut the cable. Him they named 
Eurypilus : so sings my tragic strain 2 , 
In which majestic measure well thou know'st, 
Who know'st it all. That other, round the loins 
So slender of his shape, was Michael Scot 3 , 

was this done, than Pinamonte pnt himself at the head of the populace, drove 
out Casalodi and his adherents, and obtained the sovereignty for himself. 

1 Another origin .] Lombardi refers to Servius on the Tenth Book of the 
JEneid. Alii a Tarchone Tyrrheni fratre conditam dicunt Mantuam autem 
ideo nominatam quia Etrusca lingua Mantum ditem patrem appellant. 

8 So sings my tragic strain.'] 

Suspensi Eurypilum scitatum oracula Phoebi 

Mittimus. Virg. JEneicl. ii. 14. 

3 Michael Scot.] " Egli non ha ancora guari, che in questa citta fu un gran 
maestro in negromanzia, il quale ebbe nome Michele Scotto, percio che di 
Scozia era." Boccaccio, Dec. Giorn. viii. nov. 9. "It is not long since 
there was in this city (Florence) a great master in necromancy, who was 
called Michele Scotto, because he was from Scotland." See also Giov. Vil- 
lani, Hist. lib. x. cap. cv. and cxli. and lib. xii. cap. xviii. and Fazio degli 
Uberti, Dittamondo, 1. ii. cap. xxvii. I make no apology for adding the fol- 
lowing curious particulars extracted from the notes to Mr. Scott's Lay of the 
Last Minstrel, a poem in which a happy use is made of the superstitions re- 
lating to the subject of this note. " Sir Michael Scott, of Balwearie, flourished 
during the thirteenth century, and was one of the ambassadors sent to bring 
the Maid of Norway to Scotland upon the death of Alexander III. He was 
a man of much learning, chiefly acquired in foreign countries. He wrote a 
commentary upon Aristotle, printed at Venice in 1496, and several treatises 
upon natural philosophy, from which he appears to have been addicted to the 
abstruse studies of judicial astrology, alchymy, physiognomy, and chiromancy. 
Hence he passed among his contemporaries for a skilful magician. Dempster 
informs us, that he remembers to have heard in his youth, that the magic 
books of Michael Scott were still in existence, but could not be opened with- 
out danger, on account of the fiends who were thereby invoked. Dempsteri 



(104) THE VISION. 115—123. 

Practised in every slight of magic wile. 

" Guido Bonatti 1 see : Asdente 2 mark, 
Who now were willing he had tended still 
The thread and cordwain, and too late repents. 

" See next the wretches, who the needle left. 
The shuttle and the spindle, and became 
Diviners : baneful witcheries they wrought 
With images and herbs. But onward now : 
For now doth Cain with fork of thgrns 3 confine 



Historia Ecclesiastica, 1627, lib. xii. p. 495. Leslie characterizes Michael 
Scott as " Singulari philosophise astrononiige ac medicinae laude praestans, 
dicebatur penitissimos niagise recessus indagasse." A personage thus spoken 
of by biographers and historians loses little of his mystical fame in vulgar 
tradition. Accordingly, the memory of Sir Michael Scott survives in many 
a legend ; and in the south of Scotland any work of great labour and an- 
tiquity is ascribed either to the agency of Auld Michael, of Sir William Wal- 
lace, or of the devil. Tradition varies concerning the place of his burial : 
some contend for Holme Coltrame in Cumberland, others for Melrose Ab- 
bey : but all agree that his books of magic were interred in his grave, or 
preserved in the convent where he died." The Lay of the Last Minstrel , 
by Walter Scott, Esq. Lond. 4to. 1805. p. 234, notes. Mr. Warton, speaking 
of the new translations of Aristotle, from the original Greek into Latin, 
about the twelfth century, observes : " I believe the translators understood 
very little Greek. Our countryman, Michael Scotus, was one of the first of 
them; who was assisted by Andrew, a Jew. Michael was astrologer to 
Frederic II. Emperor of Germany, and appears to have executed his trans- 
lations at Toledo in Spain, about the year 1220. These new versions were 
perhaps little more than corrections from those of the early Arabians, made 
under the inspection of the learned Spanish Saracens.' * History of English 
Poetry, vol. i. dissert, ii. and sect. ix. p. 292. Among the Canonici MSS. 
in the Bodleian, I have seen (Xo 520) the astrological works of Michael 
Scot, on vellum, with an illuminated portrait of him at the beginning. 

1 Guido Bo?iatti.~\ An astrologer of Forli, on whose skill Guido da Monte- 
feltro, lord of that place, so much relied, that he is reported never to have 
gone into battle, except in the hour recommended to him as fortunate by 
Bonatti. Landino and Vellutello speak of a book which he composed on the 
subject of his art. Macchiavelli mentions him in the History of Florence, L 
i. p. 24. ed. 1550. " He flourished about 1230 and 1260. Though a learned 
astronomer he was seduced by astrology, through which he was greatly in 
favour with many princes of that time. His many works are miserably 
spoiled by it." Bettinelli, Risorgimento d' Italia, t. i. p. 118, 8vo. 1786. 
He is referred to in Brown's Vulgar Errors, b. 4. c. 12. 2 Asdente, .] A 
shoemaker at Parma, who deserted his business to practise the arts of 
divination. How much this man had attracted the public notice appears 
from a passage in our author's Convito, p. 179, where it is said, in speaking 
of the derivation of the word " noble," that " if those who were best known 
were accounted the most noble, Asdente, the shoemaker of Parma, would be 
more noble than anyone in that city." 3 Cain with fork of thorns.] By 
Cain and the thorns, or what is still vulgarly called the Man in the Moon, 
the Poet denotes that luminary. The same superstition is alluded to in the 
Paradise, Canto ii. 52. The curious reader may consult Brand on Popular 



121—128. HELL, Canto XX. (105) 

On either hemisphere, touching the wave 

Beneath the towers of Seville. Yesternight 

The moon was round. Thou mayst remember well : 

For she good service did thee in the gloom 

Of the deep wood." This said, both onward moved. 



CANTO XXL 



' ARGUMENT. 

Still in the eighth circle, which bears the name of Malebolge, they look 
down from the bridge that passes over its fifth gulf, upon the barterers or 
public peculators. These are plunged in a lake of boiling pitch, and 
guarded by Demons, to whom Virgil, leaving Dante apart, presents him- 
self; and license being obtained to pass onward, both pursue their way. 

Thus we from bridge to bridge, with other talk, 
The which my drama cares not to rehearse, 
Pass'd on ; and to the summit reaching, stood 
To view another gap, within the round 
Of Malebolge, other bootless pangs. 

Marvellous darkness shadow'd o'er the place. 

In the Venetians' arsenal l as boils 
Through wintry months tenacious pitch, to smear 
Their unsound vessels ; for the inclement time 
Sea-faring men restrains, and in that while 
His bark one builds anew, another stops 
The ribs of his that hath made many a voyage, 
One hammers at the prow, one at the poop, 
This shapeth oars, that other cables twirls, 
The mizen one repairs, and main-sail rent ; 
So, not by force of fire but art divine, 
BoiPd 2 here a glutinous thick mass, that round 
Limed all the shore beneath. I that beheld, 

Antiquities, 4to. 1813. voL ii. p. 476, and Douce's Illustrations of Shak- 
speare, 8vo. 1807. v. i. p. 16. 
1 In the Venetians' arsenal.'] 

Come dentr' ai Xavai della gran terra, 

Tra le lacune del mar d'Adria posta, 

Serban la pece la togata gente, 

Ad uso di lor navi e di lor triremi ; 

Per solcar poi sicuri il mare ondoso, &c. Ruccellai, Le Api, y. 165. 
Dryden seems to have had the passage in the text before him in his Annus 
Mirabilis, st. 146, &c. 2 BoiVd.~\ Vidi flumen magno de Inferno pro- 

cedere ardens, atque piceum. Alberici Visio, § 17. 



(106) THE VISION. 19—48. 

But therein nought distinguished, save the bubbles 
Raised by the boiling, and one mighty swell 
Heave 1 , and by turns subsiding fall. While there 
I fix'd my ken below, " Mark ! mark ! " my guide 
Exclaiming, drew me towards him from the place 
Wherein I stood. I turn'd myself, as one 
Impatient to behold that which beheld 
He needs must shun, whom sudden fear unmans, 
That he his flight delays not for the view. 
Behind me I discern' d a devil black, 
That running up advanced along the rock. 
Ah ! what fierce cruelty his look bespake. 
In act how bitter did he seem, with wings 
Buoyant outstretch' d and feet of nimblest tread. 
His shoulder, proudly eminent and sharp, 
Was with a sinner charged ; by either haunch 
He held him, the foot's sinew griping fast. 

" Ye of our bridge !" he cried, " keen-talon'd fiends ! 
Lo ! one of Santa Zita's elders 2 . Him 
Whelm ye beneath, while I return for more. 
That land hath store of such. All men are there, 
Except Bonturo, barterers 3 : of ' no ' 
For lucre there an ' ay ' is quickly made." 

Him dashing down, o'er the rough rock he turn'd ; 
Nor ever after thief a mastiff loosed 
Sped with like eager haste. That other sank, 
And forthwith writhing to the surface rose. 
But those dark demons, shrouded by the bridge, 
Cried, " Here the hallow'd visage 4 saves not : here 
Is other swimming than in Serchio's wave 5 , 

One mighty sic ell 



Heave.] Yidi etiam os putei magnum flam mas emittentem, et nunc sur- 
sum nunc deorsum descendentem. Alberici Tisio. § 11. 2 One of Santa 
Zita's elders.] The elders or chief magistrates of Lucca, where Santa Zita 
was held in especial veneration. The name of this sinner is supposed to 
have been Martino Botaio. 3 Except Bo?itiwo, barterers.] This is said 
ironically of Bonturo de' Dati. By barterers are meant peculators, of every 
description ; all who traffic the interests of the public for their own private 
advantage. 4 The hallow'd visage.] A representation of the head of our 
Saviour "worshipped at Lucca. 
5 Is other swimming than in Serchio' s wave.] 

Qui si nuota altiimenti che nel Serchio. 
Serchio is the river that flows by Lucca. So Pulci. Morg. Magg. c. xxiv. 
Qui si nuota nel sangue, e non nel Serchio. 



49—86. HELL, Canto XXI. (107) 

Wherefore, if thou desire we rend thee not, 
Take heed thou mount not o'er the pitch." This said, 
They grappled him with more than hundred hooks, 
And snouted : " Cover'd thou must sport thee here ; 
So, if thou canst, in secret mayst thou filch." 
E'en thus the cook bestirs him, with his grooms, 
To thrust the flesh 1 into the caldron down 
With flesh-hooks, that it float not on the top. 

Me then my guide bespake : " Lest they descry 
That thou art here, behind a craggy rock 
Bend low and skreen thee : and whate'er of force 
Be offer 'd me, or insult, fear thou not ; 
For I am well advised, who have been erst 
In the like fray." Beyond the bridge's head 
Therewith he pass'd ; and reaching the sixth pier, 
Behoved him then a forehead terror-proof. 

With storm and fury, as when dogs rush forth 
Upon the poor man's back, who suddenly 
From whence he standeth makes his suit ; so rush'd 
Those from beneath the arch, and against him 
Their weapons all they pointed. He, aloud : 
"Be none of you outrageous : ere your tine 
Dare seize me, come forth from amongst you one, 
Who having heard my words, decide he then 
If he shall tear these limbs." They shouted loud, 
" Go, Malacoda ! " Whereat one advanced, 
The others standing firm, and as he came, 
" What may this turn avail him ? " he exclaim'd. 

" Believest thou, Malacoda ! I had come 
Thus far from all your skirmishing secure," 
My teacher answer'd, " without will divine 
And destiny propitious ? Pass we then ; 
For so Heaven's pleasure is, that I should lead 
Another through this savage wilderness." 

Forthwith so fell his pride, that he let drop 
The instrument of torture at his feet, 
And to the rest exclaim'd : u We have no power 
To strike him." Then to me my guide : " O thou ! 

1 The flesh.'] In eundeni flumen corruunt : rursumque assurgentes, ac 
demio recidentes, tamdiu ibidem cruciantor, donee in morem carnium ex- 
eocti, &c. Alberici Visio, § 17. 



(108) THE VISION. 87—117. 

TVho on the bridge among the crags dost sit 
Low crouching, safely now to me return." 

I rose, and towards him moved with speed ; the fiends 
Meantime all forward drew : me terror seized, 
Lest they should break the compact they had made. 
Thus issuing from Caprona 1 , once I saw 
The infantry, dreading lest his covenant 
The foe should break ; so close he heinrn'd them round. 

I to my leader's side adhered, mine eyes 
TVith flxt and motionless observance bent 
On their unkiudlv visage. Thev their hooks 
Protruding, one the other thus bespake : 
"Wilt thou I touch him on the hip ?" To whom 
Was answer'd : "Even so : nor miss thy aim." 

But he. who was in conference with my guide. 
Turn'd rapid round : and thus the demon spake : 
" Stay, stay thee. Scarmiglione ! " Then to us 
He added : ;i Further footing to your step 
This rock affords not. shiver'd to the base 
Of the sixth arch. But would ye still proceed, 
Up by this cavern go : not distant far, 
Another rock will yield you passage safe. 
Yesterday-, later by live hours than now, 
Twelve hundred threescore years and six had fill'd 
The circuit of their course, since here the way 
TVas broken. Thitherward I straight dispatch 
Certain of these my scouts, who shall espy 
If anv on the surface bask. "With them 
Go ye : for ye shall find them nothing fell. 
Come, Alichino, forth," with that he cried, 
"And Calcabrina, and Cagnazzo 3 thou ! 

1 From Caprona. ,] The surrender of the castle of Caprona to the com- 
bined forces of Florence and Lucca, on condition that the garrison should 
march out in safety, to which event Dante was a witness, took place in 1290. 
See G. Yillani, Hist, lib. vii. c. exxxvi. - Yesterday.} This passage fixes 
the era of Dante's descent at Good Friday, in the year 1300. (34 years from 
our blessed Lord's incarnation being added to 1266.! and at the thirty-fifth 
year of our Poet's age. See Canto i. v. 1. The awful event alluded to. the 
Evangelists infomi us. happened "at the ninth hour." that is. our sixth, 
when "the rocks were rent." and the convulsion, according to Dante, was 
felt even in the depths of Hell. See Canto xii. v. 3>. " 3 Cagnazzo.'] 
Pulci introduces some of these demons in a very pleasant adventure, related 
near the beginning of the second Canto of his Morgante Maggiore : 



118—137. HELL, Canto XXI. (109) 

The troop of ten let Barbariccia lead. 

With Libicocco, Draghinazzo haste, 

Fang'd Ciriatto, Graffiacane fierce, 

And Farfarello, and mad Eubicant. 

Search ye around the bubbling tar. For these, 

In safety lead them, where the other crag 

Uninterrupted traverses the dens." 

I then : " master 1 ! what a sight is there. 
Ah ! without escort, journey we alone, 
Which, if thou know the way, I covet not. 
Unless thy prudence fail thee, dost not mark 
How they do gnarl upon us, and their scowl 
Threatens us present tortures ? " He replied : 
" I charge thee, fear not : let them, as they will, 
Gnarl on : 'tis but in token of their spite 
Against the souls who mourn in torment steep'd." 

To leftward o'er the pier they turn'd ; but each 
Had first between his teeth prest close the tongue, 
Toward their leader for a signal looking, 
Which he with sound obscene 2 triumphant gave. 

Non senti tu, Orlando, in quella tomba 

Quelle parole, che colui rinibomba ? 

Io Toglio andar a scoprir quello avello, 

La dove e' par che quella voce s'oda, 

Ed escane Cagnazzo, e Farfarello, 

O Libicocco, col suo Malacoda ; 

E nnalmente s'accostava a quello, 

Pero che Orlando questa impresa loda, 

E disse ; scuopri, se vi fussi dentro 

Quanti ne pioyon mai dal ciel nel centro. Stanze 30, 1. 

" Perceivest the words, Orlando, which this fellow 

Doth in our ears out of that tomb rebellow ? 

" I '11 go, and straight the sepulchre uncase, 

From whence, as seems to me, that yoice was heard ; 

Be Farfarel and Cagnazzo to my face, 

Or Libicoc with Malacoda, stirr'd :" 

And finally he drew near to the place ; 

The emprize Orlando praising with this word : 

" Uncase it, though within as many dwell, 

As ever were from heaven rain'd down to hell." 
1 O master /] Lombardi tells us that every edition, except Ins favourite 
Nidobeatina, has " me" printed separately, instead of " Ome." This is 
not the case at least with Landino's of 1484. But there is no end of these 
inaccuracies. ■ With sound obscene.] Compare the original with Aris- 

tophanes, Xubes. 165 : — 

adXiny^ 6 Trpuucros ictt'iv. 



(110) TKZ VISION 1—2.3 

canto xxn. 



a 7. :-v::z:."i 

Virgil end Dante proceed, accompanied by Hie Demons, and see other at 
ners of the same description in. Hie same gulf. The device of CSamnoSo 
one of these, to escape from the Demons, who bad laid bold on mm. 



It hath been heretofore my chance to see 
Horsemen with martial order shifting camp, 
To onset sallying, or in muster ranged, 
Or in retreat sometimes ontstreteh'd for flight : 
Light-armed squadrons and fleet foragers 
Scouring thy plains, Arezzo ! have I seen, 
And clashing tournaments, and tilting jous 5 
IN' : w with the sound of trumpets, now of bells, 
Tabors ! ? or signals made from castled heights, 
And with inventions multiform, our own, 
Or introduced from foreign land ; but ne'er 
To such a strange recorder I beheld, 
In evolution moving, horse nor foot, 
N : : ship, that tack'd by sign from land or star. 

tth the ten demons on our way we went ; 
Ah, fearful company ! but in the church 2 
"With saints, with gluttons at the tavern's mess. 

Still earnest on the pitch I gazed, to mark 
All things whate'er the chasm contained 3 , and those 
Who burn'd within. As dolphins 4 that, in sign 
To mariners, heave high their arched backs. 
That thence forewarn'd they may advise to save 
Their threaten'd vessel ; so, at intervals, 

- Tabors.'] " Tabour, a drum, a common accompaniment of -war, is men- 
tioned as one of the instruments of martial wmg i c in tins battle (in Richard 
Comr-de-Iion) with characteristics! propriety. It was imported into tbe 
European armies from the Saracens in the holy war. Jomvule describes a 
superb bark or galley belonging to a Saracen chief which, fa n ED e 1 

with cymbals, tabemrs, and Saracen horns. Hist, de S. Lots, p. 30." 
Warton's Hist, of English ¥odtr% ~ L t p. 167. : -'. rv :\-^:\ \ 
This proverb is repeated by Polei, Morg. Magg. cxviL 3 Wkat&er ike 
chasm contain^ d.~] Monti, in his Proposta, iyJUa i pief& " contegpo " to mr a ni^ 
not " contents " bnt " state," " condition. 9 * 

1 Am dolphins.] K lieti deMni 

_t. — 171 51^-711111 c ~ 1 71. . in 11 " ,*" ' 17'- 

C~z.i ::rli:z. Li ::r~r:r- 1 essir " • ~ — . 

7 :: E Qmadrir. Kb. i. cap. 15. 



24—51. HELL, Canto XXII. (Ill) 

To ease the pain, his back some sinner show'd, 
Then hid more nimbly than the lightning-glance. 

E'en as the frogs, that of a watery moat 
Stand at the brink, with the jaws only out, 
Their feet and of the trunk all else conceal'd, 
Thus on each part the sinners stood ; but soon 
As Barbariccia was at hand, so they 
Drew back under the wave. I saw, and yet 
My heart doth stagger, one, that waited thus, 
As it befals that oft one frog remains, 
^Yhile the next springs away : and Grafiiacan 1 , 
Who of the fiends was nearest, grappling seized 
His clotted locks, and dragg'd him sprawling up, 
That he appear'd to me an otter. Each 
Already by their names I knew, so well 
When they were chosen I observed, and mark'd 
How one the other call'd. " O Rubicant ! 
See that his hide thou with thy talons flay," 
Shouted together all the cursed crew. 

Then I : " Inform thee, Master ! if thou may, 
What wretched soul is this, on whom their hands 
His foes have laid." My leader to his side 
Approach' d, and whence he came inquired ; to whom 
Was answer'd thus : "Born in Navarre's domain 2 , 
My mother placed me in a lord's retinue ; 
For she had borne me to a losel vile, 
A spendthrift of his substance and himself. 
The good king Thibault 3 after that I served 4 : 

1 Graffiacan.] Fuseli, in a note to his third Lecture, observes, that " the 
Minos of Dante, in Messer Biagio da Cesena, and his Charon, have been 
recognised by all ; bnt less the shivering wretch held over the barge by a 
hook, and evidently taken from this passage." He is speaking of Michael 
Angelo's Last Judgment. 2 Born in Navarre's domain.] The name of 
this peculator is said to have been Ciampolo. 3 The good king Thibault.'] 
" Thibault I. King of Navarre, died on the 8th of June, 1233, as much to be 
commended for the desire he showed of aiding the war in the Holy Land, 
as reprehensible and faulty for his design of oppressing the rights and 
privileges of the church ; on which account it is said that the whole kingdom 
was under an interdict for the space of three entire years. — Thibault un- 
doubtedly merits praise, as for his other endowments, so especially for his 
cultivation of the liberal arts, his exercise and knowledge of music and 
poetry, in which he so much excelled, that he was accustomed to compose 
verses and sing them to the viol, and to exhibit his poetical compositions 
publicly in his palace, that they might be criticised by all." Mariana, 
History of Spain, b. xiii. c. 9. An account of Thibault, and two of his 



(112) THE VISION. 52—80. 

To peculating here my thoughts were turn'd, 
Whereof I give account in this dire heat." 

Straight Ciriatto, from whose mouth a tusk 
Issued on either side, as from a boar, 
Kipp'd him with one of these. 'Twixt evil claws 
The mouse had fallen : but Barbariccia cried, 
Seizing him with both arms : " Stand thou apart, 
While I do fix him on my prong transpierced." 
Then added, turning to my guide his face, 
" Inquire of him, if more thou wish to learn, 
Ere he again be rent." My leader thus : 
" Then tell us of the partners in thy guilt ; 
Knowest thou any sprung of Latian land 
Under the tar?" — "I parted," he replied, 
"But now from one, who sojourn'd not far thence ; 
So were I under shelter now with him, 
Nor hook nor talon then should scare me more." 

" Too long we suffer," Libicocco cried ; 
Then, darting forth a prong, seized on his arm, 
And mangled bore away the sinewy part. 
Him Draghinazzo by his thighs beneath 
Would next have caught ; whence angrily their chief, 
Turning on all sides round, with threatening brow 
Restraint them. When their strife a little ceased, 
Of him, who yet was gazing on his wound, 
My teacher thus without delay inquired : 
" Who was the spirit, from whom by evil hap 
Parting, as thou hast told, thou earnest to shore ? " — 

"It was the friar Gomita 1 ," he rejoin'd, 

songs, with, what were probably the original melodies, may be seen in Dr. 
Burney's History of Music, v. ii. c. iv. His poems, which are in the French 
language, were edited by M. l'Eveque de la Ravalliere. Paris. 1742. 2 vol. 
12mo. Dante twice quotes one of his verses in the Treatise de Vulg. Eloq. 
lib. i. c. ix. and lib. ii. c. v. and refers to him again, lib. ii. c. vi. From 
"the good king Thibault" are descended the good, but more unfortunate 
monarch, Louis XVI. of France, and consequently the present legitimate 
sovereign of that realm. See Henault, Abrege Chron. 1252, 3, 4. 4 I 
served.] Again Lombardi misrepresents the readings of other editions, as 
he does throughout this Canto in several instances, wherein he professes to 
follow that which he has selected for his model ; but, as these varieties regard 
certain delicacies of the original language, and do not affect the sense, I shall 
not trouble my readers by noticing them. 

1 The friar Gomita.] He was intrusted by Nino de' Visconti with the 
government of Galium, one of the four jurisdictions into which Sardinia was 
divided. Having his master's enemies in his power, he took a bribe from 



81—117. HELL, Canto XXII. (113) 

" He of Gallura, vessel of all guile, 

Who had his master's enemies in hand, 

And used them so that they commend him well. 

Money he took, and them at large dismiss'd ; 

So he reports ; and in each other charge 

Committed to his keeping play'd the part 

Of barterer to the height. With him doth herd 

The chief of Logodoro, Michel Zanche 1 . 

Sardinia is a theme whereof their tongue 

Is never weary. Out ! alas ! behold 

That other, how he grins. More would I say, 

But tremble lest he mean to maul me sore." 

Their captain then to Farfarello turning, 
Who roll'd his moony eyes in act to strike, 
Rebuked him thus : " Off, cursed bird ! avaunt ! " 

" If ye desire to see or hear," he thus 
Quaking with dread resumed, " or Tuscan spirits 
Or Lombard, I will cause them to appear. 
Meantime let these ill talons bate their fury, 
So that no vengeance they may fear from them, 
And I, remaining in this self-same place, 
Will, for myself but one, make seven appear, 
When my shrill whistle shall be heard : for so 
Our custom is to call each other up." 

Cagnazzo at that word deriding grinn'd, 
Then wagg'd the head and spake : " Hear his device, 
Mischievous as he is, to plunge him down." 

Whereto he thus, who fail'd not in rich store 
Of nice-wove toils : " Mischief, forsooth, extreme ! 
Meant only to procure myself more woe." 

No longer Alichino then refrain'd, 
But thus, the rest gainsaying, him bespake : 
" If thou do cast thee down, I not on foot 
Will chase thee, but above the pitch will beat 
My plumes. Quit we the vantage ground, and let 
The bank be as a shield ; that we may see, 
If singly thou prevail against us all." 

them, and allowed them to escape. Mention of Nino will recur in the notes 
to Canto xxxiii. and in the Purgatory, Canto viii. * Michel Zanche.] 

The president of Logodoro, another of the four Sardinian jurisdictions. See 
Canto xxxiii. Note to y. 136. 

I 



(114) THE VISION. US— 14$. 

Now, reader, of new sport expect to bear. 

They each one turned his eyes to the other shore. 
He first, who was the hardest to persuade. 
The spirit of Xavarre chose well his time, 
Planted his feet on land, and at one leap 
Escaping, disappointed their resolve. 

Them quick resentment stung, but him the most 
Wbo was the cause of failure : in pursuit 
He therefore sped, exclaiming, ;i Thou art caught.'' 

But little it avaiFd : terror outstripped 
His following flight : the other plunged beneath, 
And he with upward pinion raised his breast : 
E'en thus the water-fowl, when she perceives 
The falcon near, dives instant down, while he 
Enraged and spent retires. That mockery 
In Calcabrina fury stirrd, who flew 
After him, with desire of strife inflamed : 
And, for the barterer had 'scaped, so tunrd 
His talons on his comrade. O'er the dyke 
In grapple close they join'd ; but the other proved 
A goshawk able to rend well his foe ; 
And in the boiling lake both fell. The heat 
Was umpire 1 soon between them ; but in vain 
To lift themselves they strove, so fast were glued 
Their pennons. Barbariccia, as the rest. 
That chance lamenting, four in flight dispatch'd 
From the other coast, with all their weapons arm'd. 
They, to their post on each side speedily 
Descending, stretch'd their hooks toward the fiend*. 
Who flounder'd, inly burning from their scars : 
And we departing left them to that broil. 

CANTO XXJUL 



ARGOIEXT. 

The enraged Demons pursue Dante, but lie is preserved from them by Vir- 
g£L On reaching the sixth gulf, he beholds the punishment of the hypo- 
crites ; which is, to pace continually round the gulf under the pressure of 

1 Umpire.] Schemiidor. The reader, if he thinks it vrorth while, may 
consult the Proposta of Monti on this word, which, with Lombardi, he would 
alter to sgiiermitor. 



1—34. HELL, Canto XXIII. (115) 

caps and hoods, that are gilt on the outside, but leaden within. He is ad- 
dressed by two of these, Catalano and Loderingo, knights of Saint Mary, 
otherwise called Joyous Friars of Bologna. Caiaphas is seen fixed to a 
cross on the ground, and lies so stretched along the way, that all tread on 
him in passing. 

In silence and in solitude we went, 
One first, the other following his steps, 
As minor friars journeying on their road. 

The present fray had turn'd my thoughts to muse 
Upon old .ZEsop's fable 1 , where he told 
What fate unto the mouse and frog befel ; 
For language hath not sounds more like in sense, 
Than are these chances, if the origin 
And end of each be needfully compared. 
And as one thought bursts from another forth, 
So afterward from that another sprang, 
Which added doubly to my former fear. 
For thus I reason'd : " These through us have been 
So foiPd, with loss and mockery so complete, 
As needs must sting them sore. If anger then 
Be to their evil will conjoin'd, more fell 
They shall pursue us, than the savage hound 
Snatches the leveret panting 'twixt his jaws." 

Already I perceived my hair stand all 
On end with terror, and look'd eager back. 

" Teacher," I thus began, " if speedily 
Thyself and me thou hide not, much I dread 
Those evil talons. Even now behind 
They urge us : quick imagination works 
So forcibly, that I already feel them." 

He answer'd : " Were I form'd of leaded glass, 
I should not sooner draw unto myself 
Thy outward image, than I now imprint 
That from within. This moment came thy thoughts 
Presented before mine, with similar act 
And countenance similar, so that from both 
I one design have framed. If the right coast 
Incline so much, that we may thence descend 
Into the other chasm, we shall escape 

1 sEsqp's fable.] The fable of the frog, who offered to carry the mouse across 
a ditch, with the intention of drowning him, when both were carried off by a 
kite. It is not among those Greek fables which go under the name of iEsop. 

i 2 



(116) THE VISION. 35—68. 

Secure from this imagined pursuit." 

He had not spoke l his purpose to the end, 
When I from far beheld them with spread wings 
Approach to take us. Suddenly my guide 
Caught me, even as a mother that from sleep 
Is by the noise aroused, and near her sees 
The climbing fires, who snatches up her babe 
And flies ne'er pausing, careful more of him 
Than of herself, that but a single vest 
Clings round her limbs. Down from the jutting beach 
Supine he cast him to that pendent rock, 
Which closes on one part the other chasm. 

Never ran water with such hurrying pace 
Adown the tube to turn a land-mill's wheel, 
When nearest it approaches to the spokes, 
As then along that edge my master ran, 
Carrying me in his bosom, as a child, 
Not a companion. Scarcely had his feet 
Reach'd to the lowest of the bed beneath, 
When over us the steep they reach'd : but fear 
In him was none ; for that high Providence, 
Which placed them ministers of the fifth foss, 
Power of departing thence took from them all. 

There in the depth we saw a painted tribe, 
Who paced with tardy steps around, and wept, 
Faint in appearance and o'ercome with toil. 
Caps had they on, with hoods, that fell low down 
Before their eyes, in fashion like to those 
Worn by the monks in Cologne 2 . Their outside 
Was overlaid with gold, dazzling to view, 
But leaden all within, and of such weight, 
That Frederick's 3 compared to these were straw. 
Oh, everlasting wearisome attire ! 

We yet once more with them together turn'd 

1 He had not spoke.] Cumque ego cimi angelis relictiis starem payidus, 
unus ex illis tartar eis miiiistris horridis (Qu. horridus ?) hispidis (Qu. his- 
pidus ?) aspectuque procerus festinus advenieiis me impellere, et quomodo- 
cunique nocere conabatur: cum ecce apostolus velocms aecurrens, meque 
subito arripiens in quendam locum gloriose projecit Tisionis. Alberici Visio, 
§ 15. 2 Monks in Cologne.'] They wore their cowls unusually large. 
* Frederick's.] The Emperor Frederick II. is said to have punished those 
who were guilty of high treason by wrapping them up in lead, and casting 
them into a furnace. 



69-103. HELL, Canto XXIII. (117) 

To leftward, on their dismal moan intent. 
But by the weight opprest, so slowly came 
The fainting people, that our company- 
Was changed, at every movement of the step. 

Whence I my guide address'd : " See that thou find 
Some spirit, whose name may by his deeds be known ; 
And to that end look round thee as thou go'st." 

Then one, who understood the Tuscan voice, 
Cried after us aloud : " Hold in your feet, 
Ye who so swiftly speed through the dusk air. 
Perchance from me thou shalt obtain thy wish." 

Whereat my leader, turning, me bespake : 
" Pause, and then onward at their pace proceed." 

I staid, and saw two spirits in whose look 
Impatient eagerness of mind was mark'd 
To overtake me ; but the load they bare 
And narrow path retarded their approach. 

Soon as arrived, they with an eye askance 
Perused me, but spake not : then turning, each 
To other thus conferring said : " This one v 

Seems, by the action of his throat, alive ; 
And, be they dead, what privilege allows 
They walk unmantled by the cumbrous stole ?" 

Then thus to me : " Tuscan, who visitest 
The college of the mourning hypocrites, 
Disdain not to instruct us who thou art." 

" By Arno's pleasant stream," I thus replied, 
" In the great city I was bred and grew, 
And wear the body I have ever worn. 
But who are ye, from whom such mighty grief, 
As now I witness, courseth down your cheeks ? 
What torment breaks forth in this bitter woe ? " 

" Our bonnets gleaming bright with orange hue 1 ," 
One of them answer'd, " are so leaden gross, 
That with their weight they make the balances 

1 Our bonnets gleaming bright with orange hue.~\ It is observed by Ven- 
tiiri, that the word " ranee" does not here signify " rancid or disgustful," 
as it is explained by the old commentators, but " orange-coloured," in 
which sense it occurs in the Purgatory, Canto ii. 9. By the erroneous inter- 
pretation Milton appears to have been misled; " Ever since the day peepe, 
till now the sun was grown somewhat ranke." Prose Works, v. i. p. 160. 
ed. 1753. 



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125—151. HELL, Canto XXIII. (119) 

Partakers in that council, seed of ill 

And sorrow to the Jews." I noted then, 

How Virgil gazed with wonder upon him, 

Thus abjectly extended on the cross 

In banishment eternal. To the friar 

He next his words address'd : " We pray ye tell, 

If so be lawful, whether on our right 

Lies any opening in the rock, whereby 

We both may issue hence, without constraint 

On the dark angels, that compell'd they come 

To lead us from this depth." He thus replied : 

" Nearer than thou clost hope, there is a rock 

From the great l circle moving, which o'ersteps 

Each vale of horror, save that here his cope 

Is shatter'd. By the ruin ye may mount : 

For on the side it slants, and most the height 

Rises below." With head bent down awhile 

My leader stood ; then spake : " He warn'd us ill 2 , 

Who yonder hangs the sinners on his hook." 

To whom the friar : "At Bologna erst 
I many vices of the devil heard ; 
Among the rest was said, ' He is a liar 3 , 
6 And the father of lies ! ' " When he had spoke, 
My leader with large strides proceeded on, 
Somewhat disturb'd with anger in his look. 

I therefore left the spirits heavy laden, 
And, following, his beloved footsteps mark'd. 



CANTO XXIY. 



ARGUMENT. 

Under the escort of his faithful master, Dante not without difficulty makes 
his way out of the sixth gulf; and in the seventh, sees the robbers tor- 
mented by venomous and pestilent serpents. The soul of Vanni Fucci. 
who had pillaged the sacristy of Saint James in Pistoia, predicts some 
calamities that impended over that city, and over the Florentines. 

1 Great.] In the former editions it was printed " next." The error was 
observed by Mr. Carlyle. 2 He warn'd us ill.] He refers to the false- 
hood told mm by the demon. Canto xxi. 108. 3 He is a liar.] " He is 
a liar and the father of it." John, c. viii. 44. Dante had perhaps heard 
this text from one of the pulpits in Bologna. 






(120) THE VISION. 1—33. 

In the year's early nonage *, when the sun 

Tempers his tresses in Aquarius' urn, 

And now towards equal day the nights recede ; 

Whenas the rime upon the earth puts on 

Her dazzling sister's image 2 , but not long 

Her milder sway endures ; then riseth up 

The village hind, whom fails his wintry stored 

And looking out beholds the plain around 

All whiten'd; whence impatiently he smites 

His thighs, and to his hut returning in, 

There paces to and fro, wailing his lot, 

As a discomfited and helpless man ; 

Then comes he forth again, and feels new hope 

Spring in his bosom, finding e'en thus soon 

The world hath changed its countenance, grasps his crook, 

And forth to pasture drives his little flock : 

So me my guide dishearten'd, when I saw 

His troubled forehead ; and so speedily 

That ill was cured ; for at the fallen bridge 

Arriving, towards me with a look as sweet, 

He turn'd him back, as that I first beheld 

At the steep mountain's foot. Regarding well 

The ruin, and some counsel first maintain'd 

With his own thought, he open'd wide his arm 

And took me up. As one, who, while he works, 

Computes his labour's issue, that he seems 

Still to foresee the effect ; so lifting me 

Up to the summit of one peak, he fix'd 

His eye upon another. " Grapple that," 

Said he, " but first make proof, if it be such 

As will sustain thee." For one capt with lead 

This were no journey. Scarcely he, though light, 

And I, though onward push'd from crag to crag, 

1 In the year's early nonage. ~\ " At the latter part of January, when 
the sun enters into Aquarius, and the equinox is drawing near, when the 
hoar-frosts in the morning often wear the appearance of snow, hut are 
melted by the rising sun." 

2 Her dazzling sister's image.~\ Xiyvvu fxiXaivav, awXtjv >7rvpds kclctlv. 

JEschyl. Septem Contra Thebas, v. 490. Blomfield's edit. 

Kaaris 

TnfXov %vvovpos, dixj/ia kovls. JEschyl. Agamemnon, v. 478. Blomfield. 
s Whom fails his wintry store. ~\ A cui la roba manca. 
So in the Purgatorio, c. xiii. 61. Cos! gli ciechi a cui la roba manca. 



34—60. HELL, Canto XXIV. (121) 

Could mount. And if the precinct of this coast 
"Were not less ample than the last, for him 
I know not, but my strength had surely fail'd. 
But Malebolge all toward the mouth 
Inclining of the nethermost abyss, 
The site of every valley hence requires, 
That one side upward slope, the other fall. 

At length the point from whence l the utmost stone 
Juts down, we reach'd ; soon as to that arrived, 
So was the breath exhausted from my lungs 
I could no further, but did seat me there. 

" Now needs thy best of man ;" so spake my guide : 
" For not on downy plumes 2 , nor under shade 
Of canopy reposing, fame is won ; 
Without which whosoe'er consumes his days, 
Leaveth such vestige of himself on earth, 
As smoke in air or foam upon the wave. 
Thou therefore rise : vanquish thy weariness 3 
By the mind's effort, in each struggle form'd 
To vanquish, if she suffer not the weight 
Of her corporeal frame to crush her down. 
A longer ladder yet remains to sca]e. 
From these to have escaped sufficeth not, 
If well thou note me, profit by my words." 

I straightway rose, and show'd myself less spent 
Than I in truth did feel me. " On," I cried, 
" For I am stout and fearless." Up the rock 

1 From whence.'] Mr. Carlyle notes the mistake in my former transla- 
tion ; and I hare corrected it accordingly. 
8 Not on downy plumes .] 

Lettor, tu dei pensar che, senza ardire, 
Senza affanno soffrir, l'uomo non puote 
Fama acqnistar, ne gran cose fornire. 

Fazio degli Uberti, Dittamondo, lib. iv. cap. iv. 
Nessun mai per fuggir, o per riposo, 
Yenne in altezza fama ower in gloria. 

Frezzi, II Quadrir. lib. ii. cap. ii. 
Signor, non sotto l'ombra in piaggia molle 
Tra fonti e nor, tra Ninfe e tra Sirene, 
Ma in cima all' erto e faticoso colle 

Delia virtu riposto e il nostro bene. Tasso, G. L. c. xyii. st. 61. 
3 Vanquish thy weariness.'] 

Qnin corpus onustum 

Hesternis ritiis aninmm quoqne praegraYat una, 

Atque affigit humi divinae particulam aurse. Hor. Sat. ii. Kb. ii. 78. 



(122) THE VISION. 61—92. 

Our way we held, more rugged than before, 
Narrower, and steeper far to climb. From talk 
I ceased not, as we journey'd, so to seem 
Least faint ; whereat a voice from the other foss 
Did issue forth, for utterance suited ill. 
Though on the arch that crosses there I stood, 
What were the words I knew not, but who spake 
Seem'd moved in anger. Down I stoop'd to look ; 
But my quick eye might reach not to the depth 
For shrouding darkness ; wherefore thus I spake : 
" To the next circle, teacher, bend thy steps, 
And from the wall dismount we ; for as hence 
I hear and understand not, so I see 
Beneath, and nought discern." — " I answer not," 
Said he, " but by the deed. To fair request 
Silent performance maketh best return." 

We from the bridge's head descended, where 
To the eighth mound it joins ; and then, the chasm 
Opening to view, I saw a crowd within 
Of serpents l terrible, so strange of shape 
And hideous, that remembrance in my veins 
Yet shrinks the vital current. Of her sands 2 
Let Libya vaunt no more : if Jaculus, 
Fareas and Chelyder be her brood, 
Cenchris and Amphisbsena, plagues so dire 
Or in such numbers swarming ne'er she show'd, 
Not with all Ethiopia, and whate'er 
Above the Erythraean sea is spawn'd. 

Amid this dread exuberance of woe 
Ran naked spirits wing'd with horrid fear, 
Nor hope had they of crevice where to hide, 
Or heliotrope 3 to charm them out of view. 

1 Serpents.] Vidi locum horridum tenebrosum foetoribus exhalantibus 

flammis crepitantibus serpentibus, draconibus repletum. Alberici 

Visio, § 12. 2 Of her sands.] Compare Lucan, Phars. lib. ix. 703. 

3 Heliotrope.] Viridi colore est (gemma heliotropion) non ita acuto sed 
imbilo magis et represso, stellis puniceis superspersa. Causa nominis de 
effectu lapidis est et potestate. Dejecta in labris seneis radios solis mutat 
sanguineo repercussu, utraque aqua splendorem aeris abjicit et avertit. 
Etiam illud posse dicitur, ut herb a ejusdem nominis mixta et praecantatio- 
nibus legitimis eonsecrata, eum, a quocunque gestabitur, subtrahat visibus 
obviorum. Solinus, c. xl. "A stone,'' says Boccaccio, in his humorous 
tale of Calandrino, " which we lapidaries call heliotrope, of such extraordi- 



93—112. HELL, Canto XXIV. (123) 

With serpents were their hands behind them bound, 

Which through their reins infix'd the tail and head, 

Twisted in folds before. And lo ! on one 

Near to our side, darted an adder up, 

And, where the neck is on the shoulders tied, 

Transpierced him. Far more quickly than e'er pen 

Wrote or I, he kindled, burn'd, and changed 

To ashes all, pour'd out upon the earth. 

When there dissolved he lay, the dust again 

UproU'd spontaneous, and the self-same form 

Instant resumed. So mighty sages tell, 

The Arabian Phoenix ! , when five hundred years 

Have well nigh circled, dies, and springs forthwith 

Renascent : blade nor herb throughout his life 

He tastes, but tears of frankincense 2 alone 

And odorous amomum : swaths of nard 

And myrrh his funeral shroud. As one that falls, 

He knows not how, by force demoniac dragg'd 

To earth, or through obstruction fettering up 

In chains invisible the powers of man, 

nary virtue, that the hearer of it is effectually concealed from the sight of all 
present." Decani. G. viii. N. 3. In Chiabrera's Ruggiero, Scaltrimento 
begs of Sofia, who is sending him on a perilous errand, to lend him the he- 
liotrope. 

In mia man fida 

L'elitropia, per cui possa involarmi 

Secondo il mio talento agli occhi altrui. c. vi. 

Trust to my hand the heliotrope, by which 
I may at will from others' eyes conceal me. 
Compare Ariosto, II Negromante, a, 3. s. 3. Pulci, Morg. Magg. c. xxv. 
and Fortiguerra, Ricciardetto, c. x. st. 17. Gower, in his Confessio Amantis, 
lib. yii. enumerates it among the jewels in the diadem of the sun : — 
Jaspis and helitropius. 

1 The Arabian Phoenix. 1 This is translated from Ovid, Metam. lib. xv. : — 

Una est quae reparat, seque ipsa reseminat ales ; 
Assyrii Phoenica vocant. Nee fruge neque herbis, 
Sed thuris lacrymis, et succo yivit amomi. 
Haec ubi quinque suae complevit secula vitae, 
Ihcis in ramis, tremulaave cacumine palmae, 
Unguibus et pando nidum sibi construit ore. 
Qua simul ut casias, et nardi lenis aristas, 
Quassaque cum fulva substrayit cinnama myrrha, 
Se super imponit, finitque in odoribus aevum. 
See also Petrarch, Canzone : — Qual piu, &c. 

2 Tears of frankincense.'] Incenso e mirra e quello onde si pasce. 
Fazio degli Uberti, Dittamondo, in a gorgeous description of the Phoenix, 
lib. ii. cap. v. 



(124) THE VISION. 113—143 

Who, risen from his trance, gazeth around 1 , 
Bewilder'd with the monstrous agony 
He hath endured, and wildly staring sighs ; 
So stood aghast the sinner when he rose. 

Oh! how severe God's judgment, that deals out 
Such blows in stormy vengeance. Who he was, 
My teacher next inquired ; and thus in few 
He answer'd: " Yanni Fucci 2 am I call'd, 
Not long since rained down from Tuscany 
To this dire gullet. Me the bestial life 
And not the human pleased, mule that I was, 
Who in Pistoia found my worthy den." 

I then to Virgil : " Bid him stir not hence ; 
And ask what crime did thrust him hither : once 
A man I knew him, choleric and bloody." 

The sinner heard and feign'd not, but towards me 
His mind directing and his face, wherein 
Was dismal shame depictured, thus he spake : 
" It grieves me more to have been caught by thee 
In this sad plight, which thou beholdest, than 
When I was taken from the other life. 
I have no power permitted to deny 
What thou inquirest. I am doom'd thus low 
To dwell, for that the sacristy by me 
Was rifled of its goodly ornaments, 
And with the guilt another falsely charged. 
But that thou mayst not joy to see me thus, 
So as thou e'er shalt 'scape this darksome realm, 
Open thine ears and hear what I forebode. 
Reft of the Neri first Pistoia 3 pines ; 
Then Florence 4 changeth citizens and laws ; 

1 Gazeth around.] Su mi levai senza far piu parole, 

Cogli ocelli intorno stupido mirando, 
Si come l'Epilentico far suole. 

Frezzi, II Quadrir. lib. ii. cap. iii 

2 Vanni Fucci.'] He is said to have been an illegitimate offspring of the 
family of Lazari in Pistoia, and, having robbed the sacristy of the church of 
St. James in that city, to have charged Vanni della Nona with the sacri- 
lege ; in consequence of which accusation the latter suffered death. 

3 Pistoia.] " In May 1301, the Bianchi party of Pistoia, with the assist- 
ance and favour of the Bianchi, who ruled Florence, drove out the party of 
the Neri from the former place, destroying their houses, palaces, and farms." 
Giov. Villani, Hist. lib. viii. c. xliv. 4 Then Florence.] " Soon after 
the Bianchi will be expelled from Florence, the Neri will prevail, and the 



144— 150. HELL, Canto XXIV. (125) 

From Valdimagra \ drawn by wrathful Mars, 
A vapour rises, wrapt in turbid mists, 
And sharp and eager driveth on the storm 
With arrowy hurtling o'er Piceno's field, 
Whence suddenly the cloud shall burst, and strike 
Each helpless Bianco prostrate to the ground. 
This have I told, that grief may rend thy heart." 



CANTO XXV. 



ARGUMENT. 

The sacrilegious Fucci vents his fury in blasphemy, is seized by serpents, 
and flying is pursued by Cacus in the form of a Centaur, %vho is described 
with a swarm of serpents on his haunch, and a dragon on his shoulders 
breathing forth fire. Our Poet then meets with the spirits of three of his 
countrymen, two of whom undergo a marvellous transformation in his 
presence, 

When he had spoke, the sinner raised his hands 2 
Pointed in mockery, and cried : " Take them, God ! 

laws and people will be changed." 1 From Valdimagra.'] The com- 
mentators explain this prophetical threat to allude to the victory obtained by 
the Marquis Morello Malaspina of Valdimagra, (a tract of country now called 
the Lunigiana,) who put himself at the head of the Neri, and defeated their 
opponents, the Bianchi, in the Campo Piceno near Pistoia, soon after the 
occurrence related in the preceding note on v. 142. Of this engagement I 
find no mention in Villani. Balbo (Vita di Dante, v. ii. p. 143.) refers to 
Gerini, Memorie Storiche di Lunigiana, torn. ii. p. 123. for the whole history 
of this Morello or Moroello. Currado Malaspina is introduced in the eighth 
Canto of the Purgatory ; where it appears, that although on the present oc- 
casion they espoused contrary sides, most important favours were never- 
theless conferred by that family on our Poet, at a subsequent period of his 
exile, in 1307. 

2 His hands, ,] Le mani alzo, con ambeduo le fiche. 
So Frezzi : E fe le fiche a Dio '1 superbo vermo. 

II Quadrir. lib. ii. cap. xix. 
Io vidi l'ira poi con crudel faccia ; 
E fe le fiche a Dio il mostro rio, 

Stringendo i denti ed alzando le braccia. lb. lib. iii. c. x. 
And Trissino : Poi facea con le man le fiche al cielo 

Dicendo : Togli, Iddio ; che puoi piu farmi ? 

JJItal. Liberata, c. xii. 
" The practice of thrusting out the thumb between the first and second 
lingers, to express the feelings of insult and contempt, has prevailed very 
generally among the nations of Europe, and for many ages had been de- 
nominated ' making the fig,' or described at least by some equivalent ex- 
pression." Douce's Illustrations of Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 492. ed. 1807. 
The passage in the original text has not escaped this diligent commentator. 



(126) THE VISION. 3—38. 

I level them at thee." From that day forth 

The serpents were my friends ; for round his neck 

One of them rolling twisted, as it said, 

u Be silent, tongue ! " Another, to his arms 

Upgliding, tied them, riveting itself 

So close, it took from them the power to move. 

Pistoia ! ah, Pistoia ! why dost doubt 
To turn thee into ashes, cumbering earth 
No longer, since in evil act so far 
Thou hast outdone thy seed l ? I did not mark, 
Through all the gloomy circles of the abyss, 
Spirit, that swell'd so proudly 'gainst his God ; 
Not him 2 , who headlong fell from Thebes. He fled, 
Nor utter'd more ; and after him there came 
A centaur full of fury, shouting, " Where, 
Where is the caitiff?" On Maremma's marsh 3 
Swarm not the serpent tribe, as on his haunch 
They swarm'd, to where the human face begins. 
Behind his head, upon the shoulders, lay 
With open wings a dragon, breathing fire 
On whomsoe'er he met. To me my guide : 
" Cacus 4 is this, who underneath the rock 
Of Aventine spread oft a lake of blood. 
He, from his brethren parted, here must tread 
A different journey, for his fraudful theft 
Of the great herd that near him stall'd ; whence found 
His felon deeds their end, beneath the mace 
Of stout Alcides, that perchance laid on 
A hundred blows 5 , and not the tenth was felt." 

While yet he spake, the centaur sped away : 
And under us three spirits came, of whom 
Nor I nor he was ware, till they exclaim'd, 
" Say who are ye ! " We then brake off discourse, 
Intent on these alone. I knew them not : 
But, as it chanceth oft, befel, that one 
Had need to name another, " Where," said he, 

1 Thy seed.] Thy ancestry. 2 Not him.~\ Capaneus. Canto xiv. 

3 On Maremma's marsh.'] An extensive tract near the sea-shore of 
Tnscany. 4 Cacus.] Yirgil. JEn. lib. viii. 193. b A hundred bloios.] 
Less than ten blows, out of the hundred Hercules gave him, had deprived 
him of feeling. 



39—61. RELL, Canto XXV. (127) 

" Doth Cianfa 1 lurk?" I, for a sign my guide 
Should stand attentive, placed against my lips 
The finger lifted. If, O reader ! now 
Thou be not apt to credit what I tell, 
No marvel ; for myself do scarce allow 
The witness of mine eyes. But as I look'd 
Toward them, lo ! a serpent with six feet 
Springs forth on one, and fastens full upon him : 
His midmost grasp'd the belly, a forefoot 
Seized on each arm (while deep in either cheek 2 
He flesh'd his fangs) ; the hinder on the thighs 
Were spread, 'twixt which the tail inserted curl'd 
Upon the reins behind. Ivy ne'er clasp'd 3 
A dodder'd oak, as round the other's limbs 
The hideous monster intertwined his own. 
Then, as they both had been of burning wax, 
Each melted into other, mingling hues, 
That which was either now was seen no more. 
Thus up the shrinking paper 4 , ere it burns, 
A brown tint glides, not turning yet to black, 
And the clean white expires. The other two 
Look'd on, exclaiming, "Ah ! how dost thou change, 
Agnello 5 ! See ! Thou art nor double now, 

1 Cianfa.'] He is said to have been of the family of Donati at Florence. 
2 In either cheek.] Ostendit mini post hoc apostolus lacum magnum tetrum, 
et aquae sulphured plenum, in quo animarum multitudo demersa est, ple- 
num serpentibus ac scorpionibus ; stabant vero ibi et daemones serpentes te- 
nentes et ora yultus et capita hominum cum eisdem serpentibus percuti- 
entes. Alberici Visio, § 23. 

3 Ivy ne'er clasp'd.] ^Oiroia Kiaraos Spuds ottws tt/co' e^ojuai.. 

Euripides, Hecuba, v. 102. 
Like ivy to an oak, how will I cling to her ! 

4 Thus up the shrinking paper.] Many of the commentators suppose 
that by " papiro " is here meant the wick of a lamp or candle, and Lombardi 
adduces an extract from Pier Crescenzio (Agricolt. lib. vi. cap. ix.) to show 
that this use was then made of the plant. But Tiraboschi has proved that 
paper made of linen came into use towards the latter half of the fourteenth 
century, and that the inventor of it was Pier da Fabiano, who carried on 
his manufactory in the city of Trevigi ; whereas paper of cotton, with, per- 
haps, some linen mixed, was used during the twelfth century. Stor. delta 
Lett. Ital. torn. v. lib. i. cap. iv. sect. 4. 

All my bowels crumble up to dust. 

I am a scribbled form, drawn with a pen 

Upon a parchment ; and against this fire_ 

Do I shrink up. Shakspeare, K. John, act y. sc. 7. 

5 Agnello.] Agnello Brunelleschi. 



(128) THE VISION. 62—94. 

Nor only one." The two heads now became 

One, and two figures blended in one form 

Appear'd, where both were lost. Of the four lengths 

Two arms were made : the belly and the chest, 

The thighs and legs, into such members changed 

As never eye hath seen. Of former shape 

All trace was vanish'd. Two, yet neither, seem'd 

That image miscreate, and so pass'd on 

With tardy steps. As underneath the scourge 

Of the fierce dog -star that lays bare the fields, 

Shifting from brake to brake the lizard seems 

A flash of lightning, if he thwart the road ; 

So toward the entrails of the other two 

Approaching seem'd an adder all on fire, 

As the dark pepper-grain livid and swart. 

In that part \ whence our life is nourished first, 

One he transpierced ; then down before him fell 

Stretch'd out. The pierced spirit look'd on him, 

But spake not ; yea, stood motionless and yawn'd, 

As if by sleep or feverous fit assail'd 2 . 

He eyed the serpent, and the serpent him. 

One from the wound, the other from the mouth 

Breathed a thick smoke, whose vapoury columns join'd. 

Lucan 3 in mute attention now may hear, 
Nor thy disastrous fate, Sabellus, tell, 
Nor thine, Nasidius. Ovid 4 now be mute. 
What if in warbling fiction he record 
Cadmus and Arethusa, to a snake 
Him changed, and her into a fountain clear, 
I envy not ; for never face to face 
Two natures thus transmuted did he sing, 
Wherein both shapes were ready to assume 
The other's substance. They in mutual guise 

1 In that part. ] The navel. 

2 As if by sleep or feverous Jit assail'd.] 

O Rome ! thy head 

Is drown'd in sleep, and all thy body fev'ry. Ben Jonson's Catiline. 

3 Lucan.'] Phars. lib. ix. 766 and 793. 

Lncan di alcnn di questi poetando 
Conta si come Sabello e Nasidio 
Fu punti e trasformati ivi passando. 

Fazio degli Uberti, Dittamondo, 1. v. cap. xvii. 

4 Ovid.] Metam. lib. iy. and v. 



95—132. HELL, Canto XXV. (129) 

So answer'd, that the serpent split his train 
Divided to a fork, and the pierced spirit 
Drew close his steps together, legs and thighs 
Compacted, that no sign of juncture soon 
Was visible : the tail, disparted, took 
The figure which the spirit lost ; its skin 
Softening, his indurated to a rind. 
The shoulders next I mark'd, that entering join'd 
The monster's arm -pits, whose two shorter feet 
So lengthen' d, as the others dwindling shrunk. 
The feet behind then twisting up became 
That part that man conceals, which in the wretch 
Was cleft in twain. While both the shadowy smoke 
With a new colour veils, and generates 
The excrescent pile on one, peeling it off 
From the other body, lo ! upon his feet 
One upright rose, and prone the other fell. 
Nor yet their glaring and malignant lamps 
Were shifted, though each feature changed beneath. 
Of him who stood erect, the mounting face 
Retreated towards the temples, and what there 
Superfluous matter came, shot out in ears 
From the smooth cheeks ; the rest, not backward dragg'd, 
Of its excess did shape the nose ; and swell'd 
Into due size protuberant the lips. 
He, on the earth who lay, meanwhile extends 
His sharpen'd visage 1 , and draws down the ears 
Into the head, as doth the slug his horns. 
His tongue, continuous before and apt 
For utterance, severs ; and the other's fork 
Closing unites. That done, the smoke was laid. 
The soul, transform'd into the brute, glides off, 
Hissing along the vale, and after him 
The other talking sputters ; but soon turn'd 
His new-grown shoulders on him, and in few 
Thus to another spake : " Along this path 
Crawling, as I have done, speed Buoso 2 now !" 
So saw I fluctuate in successive change 

1 His sharpened visage.] Compare Milton, P. L. b. x. 511, &c. 2 Buoso.] 
He is also said by some to hare been of the Donati family ; but by others of 
the Abbati. 



(130) THE VISION. 133—140. 

The unsteady ballast of the seventh hold : 
And here if aught my pen l have swerved, events 
So strange may be its warrant. O'er mine eyes 
Confusion hung, and on my thoughts amaze. 
Yet scaped they not so covertly, but well 
I mark'd Sciancato 2 : he alone it was 
Of the three first that came, who changed not : thou 
The other's fate, Gaville 3 ! still dost rue. 



CANTO XXVI. 



ARGUMENT. 

Remounting by the steps, down which they had descended to the seventh 
gulf, they go forward to the arch that stretches oyer the eighth, and from 
thence behold numberless flames wherein are punished the evil counsel- 
lors, each flame containing a sinner, save one, in which were Diomede and 
Ulysses, the fatter of whom relates the manner of his death. 

Florence, exult ! for thou so mightily 
Hast thriven, that o'er land and sea 4 thy wings 
Thou beatest, and thy name spreads over hell. 
Among the plunderers, such the three I found 
Thy citizens ; whence shame to me thy son, 
And no proud honour to thyself redounds. 

But if our minds 5 , when dreaming near the dawn, 
Are of the truth presageful, thou ere long 
Shalt feel what Prato 6 (not to say the rest) 

1 My pen."] Lombardi justly prefers " la penna" to " la lingua;" but, 
when he tells us that the former is in the Nidobeatina, and the latter in 
the other editions, he ought to have excepted at least Landino's of 1484, 
and Vellutello's of 1544, and, perhaps, many besides these. 8 Sciancato.] 
Puccio Sciancato, a noted robber, whose family, Venturi says, he has not 
been able to discover. The Latin, annotator on the Monte Casino MS. in- 
forms us that he was one of the Galigai of Florence, the decline of which 
house is mentioned in the Paradise, Canto xvi. 96. 3 Gaville.'] Francesco 
Guercio Cavalcante was killed at Gaville, near Florence ; and in revenge 
of his death several inhabitants of that district were put to death. 

4 O'er land and sea.] 

For he can spread thy name o'er lands and seas. Milton, Son. viii. 

5 But if our minds.] 

Namque sub Auroram, jam dormitante lucerna, 

Somnia quo cerni tempore vera solent. Ovid, Epist. xix. 
The same poetical superstition is alluded to in the Purgatory, Canto ix. 
and xxvii. 6 Shalt feel ichat Prato.] The Poet prognosticates the calami- 
ties which were soon to befal his native city, and which, he says, even her 



10—35. HELL, Canto XXVI. (131) 

Would fain might come upon thee ; and £hat chance 
Were in good time, if it befel thee now. 
Would so it were, since it must needs befal ! 
For as time l wears me, I shall grieve the more. 

We from the depth departed ; and my guide 
Remounting scaled the flinty steps 2 , which late 
We downward traced, and drew me up the steep. 
Pursuing thus our solitary way 
Among the crags and splinters of the rock, 
Sped not our feet without the help of hands. 

Then sorrow seized me, which e'en now revives, 
As my thought turns again to what I saw, 
And, more than I am wont 3 , I rein and curb 
The powers of nature in me, lest they run 
Where Virtue guides not ; that, if aught of good 
My gentle star or something better gave me, 
I envy not myself the precious boon. 

As in that season, when the sun least veils 
His face that lightens all, what time the fly 
Gives way to the shrill gnat, the peasant then, 
Upon some cliff reclined, beneath him sees 
Fire-flies innumerous spangling o'er the vale, 
Vineyard or tilth, where his day-labour lies ; 
With flames so numberless throughout its space 
Shone the eighth chasm, apparent, when the depth 
Was to my view exposed. As he, whose wrongs 4 

nearest neighbour, Prato, would wish her. The calamities more particularly 
pointed at are said to be the fall of a wooden bridge over the Arno, in May, 
1304, where a large multitude were assembled to witness a representation 
of hell and the infernal torments, in consequence of which accident many 
iives were lost ; and a conflagration, that in the following month destroyed 
more than seventeen hundred houses, many of them sumptuous buildings. 
See G. Villani, Hist. lib. yiii. c. lxx. and lxxi. x As time.'] " I shall feel 
all calamities more sensibly as I am further advanced in life." 2 The 
flinty steps.'] Yenturi, after Daniello and Volpi, explains the word in the 
original, " borni," to mean the stones that project from a wall, for other 
buildings to be joined to, which the workmen call " toothings." 3 More 
than I am wont.] " When I reflect on the punishment allotted to those 
who do not give sincere and upright advice to others, I am more anxi- 
ous than ever not to abuse to so bad a purpose those talents, whatever 
they may be, which Nature, or rather Providence, has conferred on me." 
It is probable that this declaration was the result of real feeling in the mind 
of Dante, whose political character would have given great weight to any 
opinion or party he had espoused, and to whom indigence and exile might 
have offered strong temptations to deviate from that line of conduct, which a 
strict sense of duty prescribed. 4 Ashe, whose icrongs.] Kings, b. ii. c. ii. 

K 2 



(132) THE VISION. 36—67. 

The bears jivenged, at its departure saw 

Elijah's cnariot, when the steeds erect 

Raised their steep flight for heaven; his eyes, meanwhile, 

Straining pursued them, till the flame alone, 

Upsoaring like a misty speck, he kenn'd : 

E'en thus along the gulf moves every flame, 

A sinner so enfolded close in each, 

That none exhibits token of the theft. 

Upon the bridge I forward bent to look, 
And grasp' d a flinty mass, or else had fallen, 
Though push'd not from the height. The guide, who mark'd 
How I did gaze attentive, thus began : 
" Within these ardours are the spirits, each 
Swathed in confining fire." — "Master! thy word," 
I answer'd, " hath assured me ; yet I deem'd 
Already of the truth, already wish'd 
To ask thee who is in yon fire, that comes 
So parted at the summit, as it seem'd 
Ascending from that funeral pile 1 where lay 
The Theban brothers." He replied : " Within, 
Ulysses there and Diomede endure 
Their penal tortures, thus to vengeance now 
Together hasting, as ere while to wrath. 
These in the flame with ceaseless groans deplore 
The ambush of the horse 2 , that open'd wide 
A portal for that goodly seed to pass, 
Which sow'd imperial Rome ; nor less the guile 
Lament they, whence, of her Achilles 'reft, 
Deidamia yet in death complains. 
And there is rued the stratagem that Troy 
Of her Palladium spoil'd." — " If they have power 
Of utterance from within these sparks," said I, 

1 Ascending from that funeral pile.'] The flame is said to have divided 
on the funeral pile which consumed the bodies of Eteocles and Polynices, as 
if conscious of the enmity that actuated them while living. 

Ecce iterum fratris primos ut contigit artus 
Ignis edax, tremuere rogi, et novus advena busto 
Pellitur, exundant diviso vertice flammae, 

Alternosque apices abrupta luce coruscant. Statius, Theb. lib. xii. 
Compare Lucan, Pharsal. lib. i. 145. 

2 The ambush of the horse. .] " The ambush of the wooden horse, that 
caused iEneas to quit the city of Troy and seek his fortune in Italy, where 
his descendants founded the Roman empire." 



68—98. HELL, Canto XXVI. (133) 

" master ! think my prayer a thou sand- fold 
In repetition urged, that thou vouchsafe 
To pause till here the horned flame arrive. 
See, how toward it with desire I bend." 

He thus : " Thy prayer is worthy of much praise, 
And I accept it therefore ; but do thou 
Thy tongue refrain : to question them be mine ; 
For I divine thy wish ; and they perchance, 
For they were Greeks \ might shun discourse with thee." 

When there the flame had come, where time and place 
Seern'd fitting to my guide, he thus began : 
" O ye, who dwell two spirits in one fire ! 
If, living, I of you did merit aught, 
Whate'er the measure were of that desert, 
When in the world my lofty strain I pour'd, 
Move ye not on, till one of you unfold 
In what clime death o'ertook him self-destroy'd." 

Of the old flame forthwith the greater horn 
Began to roll, murmuring, as a fire 
That labours with the wind, then to and fro 
Wagging the top, as a tongue uttering sounds, 
Threw out its voice, and spake : " When I escaped 
From Circe, who beyond a circling year 
Had held me near Caieta 2 by her charms, 
Ere thus iEneas yet had named the shore ; 
Nor fondness for my son 3 , nor reverence 
Of my old father, nor return of love, 
That should have crown'd Penelope with joy, 
Could overcome in me the zeal I had 
To explore the world, and search the ways of life, 
Man's evil and his virtue. Forth I sail'd 

1 For they were Greeks.] By this it is, perhaps, implied that they were 
haughty and arrogant. So, in our Poet's twenty-fourth Sonnet, of which a 
translation is inserted in the Life prefixed, he says, 

Ed ella mi rispose, come un Greco. 

2 Caieta.] Virgil, iEneid, lib. yii. 1. 

3 Nor fondness for my son.] Imitated by Tasso, G. L. c. viii. st. 7. 

Ne timor di fatica 6 di periglio, Del yecchio genitor, si degno affetto 

Ne raghezza del regno, ne pietade Intiepedir nel generoso petto. 
This imagined voyage of Ulysses into the Atlantic is alluded to by Pulci : — 
E sopratutto commendaTa Ulisse, 

Che per veder nelT altro mondo gisse. Morg. Magg. c. xxv. 
And by Tasso, G. L. c. xv. 25. 



(134) THE VISION. 99— 12S. 

Into the deep illimitable main, 

With but one bark, and the small faithful band 

That yet cleaved to me. As Iberia far, 

Far as Marocco, either shore I saw. 

And the Sardinian and each isle beside 

Which round that ocean bathes. Tardy with age 

Were I and my companions, when we came 

To the strait pass 1 , where Hercules ordain'd 

The boundaries not to be oferstepp'd by man. 

The walls of Seville to my right I left, 

On the other hand already Ceuta past. 

i brothers ! ' I began, ' who to the west 

8 Through perils without number now have reaoh'd : 

' To this the short remaining watch, that yet 

' Our senses have to wake, refuse not proof 

6 Of the unpeopled world, following the track 

' Of Phoebus. Call to mind from whence ye sprang : 

4 Ye were not form'd to live the life of brutes, 

•But virtue to pursue and knowledge high.' 

With these few words I sharpened for the voyage 

The mind of my associates, that I then 

Could scarcely have withheld them. To the dawn 

Our poop we turn'd, and for the witless flight 

Made our oars wines 2 . still saining on the left. 

Each star of the other pole night now beheld 3 . 

And ours so low, that from the ocean floor 

It rose not. Five times re-illumed, as oft 

Vanished the light from underneath the moon, 

Since the deep way we enter'd, when from far 

Appear'd a mountain dim 4 , loftiest methought 

1 The strait pass. ] The straits of Gibraltar. 

2 Made our oars wings. ] 

OilC ZV7JOE kpETUCl. TCI T l TTTiOCt !">;i'(Ti. TTsXoi'Tai. HO'/'/l . 0(1. XI. 124. 

So Chiabrera, Canz. Eroiehe. xiii. Faro de' remi un toIo. 
And Tasso, Ibid. 26. 

3 yight now beheld.] Petrarch is here cited by Lombardi : — 

Xe la su sopra il cerchio della hina 

Vide mai tante stelle alcuna notte. .:. xixvii. 1. 

Nor there above the circle of the mcoii 

Did ever night behold so many stars. 

4 A mountain dim.] The mountain of Purgatory. — Amongst the Tarioiu 
opinions of theologians respecting the situation of the terrestrial paradise. 
Pietro Lombardo relates,, that " it was separated by a long space, either of 
sea or land, from the regions inhabited by men, and placed in th 



129—135. HELL, Canto XXVI. (135) 

Of all I e'er beheld. Joy seized us straight ; 

But soon to mourning changed. From the new land 

A whirlwind sprung, and at her foremost side 

Did strike the vessel. Thrice 1 it whirl'd her round 

With all the waves ; the fourth time lifted up 

The poop, and sank the prow : so fate decreed : 

And over us the booming billow closed 2 ." 



CANTO XXVII. 



ARGUMENT. 

The Poet, treating of the same punishment as in the last Canto, relates that 
he turned towards a flame in which was the Count Guido da Montefeltro, 
whose inquiries respecting the state of Romagna he answers ; and Guido 
is thereby induced to declare who he is, and why condemned to that 
torment. 

Now upward rose the flame, and still'd its light 
To speak no more, and now pass'd on with leave 
From the mild poet gain'd ; when following came 
Another, from whose top a sound confused, 
Forth issuing, drew our eyes that way to look. 

As the Sicilian bull 3 , that rightfully 
His cries first echoed who had shaped its mould, 
Did so rebellow, with the voice of him 
Tormented, that the brazen monster seem'd 
Pierced through with pain ; thus, while no way they found, 
Nor avenue immediate through the flame, 
Into its language turn'd the dismal words : 

reaching as far as to the lunar circle, so that the waters of the deluge did 
not reach it." Sent. lib. ii. dist. 17. Thus Lombardi. 

1 Thrice. ,] Ast ilium ter fluctus ibidem 

Torquet agens circum, et rapidus vorat sequore vortex. 

Virg. JEn. lib. i. 116. 

2 Closed.] Venturi refers to Pliny and Solinus for the opinion that 
Ulysses was the founder of Lisbon, from whence he thinks it was easy for 
the fancy of a poet to send him on yet further enterprises. Perhaps the 
story (which it is not unlikely that our author will be found to have bor- 
rowed from some legend of the middle ages) may have taken its rise partly 
from the obscure oracle returned by the ghost of Tiresias to Ulysses, (see the 
eleventh book of the Odyssey,) and partly from the fate which there was rea- 
son to suppose had befallen some adventurous explorers of the Atlantic ocean. 

3 The Sicilian bull.] The engine of torture invented by Perillus, for the 
tvrant Phalaris. 



(136) 



THE VISION, 



13—38. 



But soon as they had won their passage forth, 

Up from the point, which vibrating obey'd 

Their motion at the tongue, these sounds were heard 

" O thou ! to whom I now direct my voice, 

That lately didst exclaim in Lombard phrase, 

6 Depart thou ; I solicit thee no more ; ' 

Though somewhat tardy I perchance arrive* 

Let it not irk thee here to pause awhile, 

And with me parley : lo ! it irks not me, 

And yet I burn. If b*it e'en now thou fall 

Into this blind world, from that pleasant land 

Of Latium, whence I draw my sum of guilt, 

Tell me if those who in Romagna dwell 

Have peace or war. For of the mountains there 1 

Was I, betwixt Urbino and the height 

Whence Tiber first unlocks his mighty flood." 

Leaning I listen' d yet with heedful ear, 
When, as he touch'd my side, the leader thus : 
" Speak thou : he is a Latian." My reply 
Was ready, and I spake without delay : 
" O spirit ! who art hidden here below, 
Never was thy Romagna without war 
In her proud tyrants' bosoms, nor is now : 
But open war there left I none. The state, 
Ravenna hath maintain'd this many a year, 
Is stedfast. There Polenta's eagle 2 broods ; 



1 Of the mountains there.] Montefeltro. 2 Polenta's eagle.] Guido 
Novello da Polenta, who bore an eagle for his coat of arms. The name 
of Polenta was derived from a castle so called, in the neighbourhood of 
Brittonoro. Cervia is a small maritime city, about fifteen miles to the 
south of Ravenna. Guido was the son of Ostasio da Polenta, and made 
himself master of Ravenna in 1265. In 1322 he was deprived of his 
sovereignty, and died at Bologna in the year following. This last and most 
munificent patron of Dante is himself enumerated, by the historian of 
Italian literature, among the poets of his time. Tiraboschi, Storia della 
Lett. Ital. torn. v. lib. iii. c. ii. sect. 13. The passage in the text might have 
removed the uncertainty which Tiraboschi expressed, respecting the dura- 
tion of Guido's absence from Ravenna, when he was driven from that city 
in 1295, by the arms of Pietro, archbishop of Monreale. It must evidently 
have been very short, since his government is here represented (in 1300) as 
not having suffered any material disturbance for many years. In the 
Proemium to the Annotations on the Decameron of Boccaccio, written by 
those who were deputed to that work, Ediz. Giunti, 1573, it is said of Guido 
Novello, " del quale si leggono ancora alcune composizioni, per poche che 
elle sieno, secondo quella eta, belle e leggiadre:" and in the collection 



39—55. HELL, Canto XXYII. (137) 

And in his broad circumference of plume 
O'ershadows Cervia. The green talons grasp 
The land ! , that stood erewhile the proof so long 
And piled in bloody heap the host of France. 

" The old mastiff of Verruchio and the young 2 , 
That tore Montagna 3 in their wrath, still make, 
Where they are wont, an augre of their fangs. 

"Lamone's city, and Santerno's 4 , range 
Under the lion of the snowy lair 5 , 
Inconstant partisan, that changeth sides, 
Or ever summer yields to winter's frost. 
And she, whose flank is wash'd of Savio's wave 6 , 
As 'twixt the level and the steep she lies, 
Lives so 'twixt tyrant power and liberty. 

" Now tell us, I entreat thee, who art thou : 
Be not more hard than others. In the world, 
So may thy name still rear its forehead high." 

edited by Allacci at Naples, 1661, p. 382, is a sonnet of his, which, breathes 
a high and pure spirit of Platonism. Among the MSS. of the Iliad in the 
Ambrosian Library at Milan, described by Mai, there is one that was in the 
possession of Guido. Iliadis Frag?nenta, &c. fol. Mediol. 1819. Proce- 
niium, p. xlviii. It was, perhaps, seen by Dante. To this account I must 
now subjoin that which has since been given, but without any reference to 
authorities, by Troya: "In the course of eight years, from 1310 to 1318, 
Guido III. of Polenta, father of Francesca, together with his sons Bernardino 
and Ostasio, had died. A third son, named Bannino, was father of Guido IV. 
Of these two it is not known whether they held the lordship of Ravenna. 
But it came to the sons of Ostasio, Guido V. called Novello, and Rinaldo 
the archbishop : on the sons of Bernardino devolved the sovereignty of the 
neighbouring city of Cervia." Veltro Allegorico di Da?ite, ed. 1826, p. 176. 
1 The land.] The territory of Forli, the inhabitants of which, in 1282, 
were enabled, by the stratagem of Guido da Montefeltro, who then governed 
it, to defeat with great slaughter the French army by which it had been be- 
sieged. See G. Villani, lib. vii. c. lxxxi. The Poet informs Guido, its 
former ruler, that it is now in the possession of Sinibaldo Ordolaffi, or Arde- 
lafii, whom he designates by his coat of arms, a lion vert. 2 The old mastiff 
of Verruchio and the young, .] Malatesta and Malatestino his son, lords of 
Rimini, called, from their ferocity, the mastiffs of Verruchio, which was the 
name of their castle. Malatestino was, perhaps, the husband of Francesca, 
daughter of Guido da Polenta. See notes to Canto v. 113. 3 Montagna.] 
Montagna de' Parcitati, a noble knight, and leader of the Ghibelline party 
at Rimini, murdered by Malatestino. 4 Lamone's city and Santerno's'] 
Lamone is the river at Faenza, and Santerno at Imola. 5 The lion of the 
snowy lair.] Machinardo Pagano, whose arms were a lion azure on a field 
argent ; mentioned again in the Purgatory, Canto xiv. 122. See G. Villani 
passim, where he is called Machinardo da Susinana. 6 Whose flank is 
tcash'd of Savio's wave.] Cesena, situated at the foot of a mountain, and 
washed by thcriver Savio, that often descends with a swoln and rapid stream 
from the Apennine. 



(13S) THE VISION. 56-7S. 

Then roar'd awhile the fire, its sharpen'd point 
On either side waved, and thus breathed at last : 
4i If I did think my answer were to one 
Who ever could return unto the world, 
This flame should rest unshaken. But since ne'er. 
If true be told me, any from this depth 
Has found his upward way, I answer thee, 
Nor fear lest infamy record the words. 

" A man of arms ■ at first, I clothed me then 
In good Saint Francis' girdle, hoping so 
To have made amends. And certainly my hope 
Had faiPd not, but that he, whom curses light on, 
The high priest 2 , again seduced me into sin. 
And how, and wherefore, listen while I tell. 
Long as this spirit moved the bones and pulp 
My mother gave me, less my deeds bespake 
The nature of the lion than the fox 3 . 
All ways of winding subtlety I knew, 
And with such art conducted, that the sound 
Reach'd the world's limit. Soon as to that part 
Of life I found me come, when each behoves 
To lower sails' 4 and gather in the lines ; 
That, which before had pleased me, then I rued, 

1 A man of arms.] Guido da Montefeltro. 

2 The high, priest.] Boniface Till. 

3 The nature of the lion than the fox. ,] Non furon leonine ma di voipe. 
So Pulci, Morg. Magg. c. xix. : 

E furon le sue opre e le sue colpe 
Xon ereder leonine ma di volpe. 
Fraus quasi vulpeculae, vis leonis videtur. Cicero de Officiis, lib. i. e. 13. 

4 To lower sails.] Our Poet had the same train of thought as when he 
wrote that most beautiful passage in his Convito, beginning "E qui e da 
sapere, ehe siccome dice Tullio in quello di Senettute. la naturale niorte, 
&c." p. 209. "As it hath been said by Cicero, in his treatise on old age, 
natural death is like a port and haven to us after a long voyage : and even as 
the good mariner, when he draws near the port, lowers his sails, and enter* 
it softly with a weak and inoffensive motion, so ought we to lower the sails of 
our worldly operations, and to return to God with all our understanding and 
heart, to the end that we may reach this haven with all quietness and with 
all peace. And herein we are mightily instructed by nature in a lesson of 
mildness ; for in such a death itself there is neither pain nor bitterness ; but, 
as ripe fruit is lightly and without violence loosened from its branch, so our 
soul without grieving departs from the body in which it hath been." 

So mayst thou live, till like ripe fruit thou drop 
Into thy mother's lap, or be with ease 
Gather'd, not harshlv pluck'd, for death mature. 

Milton, P. L. b. xi. 537. 



79— S9. HELL, Canto XXVII. (139) 

And to repentance and confession turn'd, 
Wretch that I was ; and well it had bested me. 
The chief of the new Pharisees ! meantime, 
Waging his warfare near the Lateran, 
Not with the Saracens or Jews, (his foes 
, All Christians were, nor against Acre one 

Had fought 2 , nor trafficked in the Soldan's land,) 
He, his great charge nor sacred ministry, 
In himself reverenced, nor in me that cord 
Which used to mark with leanness whom it girded. 
As in Soracte, Constantine besought 3 , 

1 The chief of the new Pharisees.'] Boniface VIII., whose enmity to the 
family of Colonna prompted him to destroy their houses near the Lateran. 
Wishing to obtain possession of their other seat, Penestrino, he consulted 
with Guido da Montefeltro how he might accomplish his purpose, offering 
him at the same time absolution for his past sins, as well as for that which 
he was then tempting him to commit. Guido's advice was, that kind words 
and fair promises would put his enemies into his power ; and they accord- 
ingly soon afterwards fell into the snare laid for them, A. D. 1298. See G. 
Villani, hb.viii.c.xxiii. There is a relation similar to this in the history of 
Ferreto Vincentino, lib. ii. anno 1294 ; and the writer adds, that our Poet 
had justly condemned Guido to the torments he has allotted him. See 
Muratori, Script. Ital. torn. ix. p. 970, where the Editor observes: " Probosi 
hujus facinoris narrationi fidem adjungere nemo probus velit, quod facile 
confinxerint Bonifacii remuli, &c." And indeed it would seem as if Dante 
himself had either not heard, or had not believed, the report of Guido's 
having sold himself thus foolishly to the Pope, when he wrote the passage 
in the Convito cited in the note to v. 76 ; for he soon after speaks of him 
as one of those noble spirits " who, when they approached the last haven, 
lowered the sails of their worldly operations, and gave themselves up to re- 
ligion in their old age, laying aside every worldly delight and wish." 

2 Nor against Acre one 

Had fought.'] He alludes to the renegade Christians, by whom the 
Saracens, in April, 1291, were assisted to recover St. John d'Acre, the last 
possession of the Christians in the Holy Land. The regret expressed by the 
Florentine annalist, G. Villani, for the loss of this valuable fortress, is well 
worthy of observation, lib. vii. c. cxliv. " From this event Christendom suf- 
fered the greatest detriment : for by the loss of Acre there no longer remained 
in the Holy Land any footing for the Christians ; and all our good maritime 
places of trade never afterwards derived half the advantage from their mer- 
chandise and manufactures ; so favourable was the situation of the city of 
Acre, in the very front of our sea, in the middle of Syria, and as it were in 
the middle of the inhabited world, seventy miles from Jerusalem, both 
source and receptacle of every kind of merchandise, as well from the east as 
from the west ; the resort of all people from all countries, and of the eastern 
nations of every different tongue ; so that it might be considered as the ali- 
ment of the world." 3 As in Soracte, Constantine besought.] So in Dante's 
treatise De Monarchic : " Dicunt quidam adhuc, quod Constantinus Impera- 
tor, mundatus a lepra intercessione Sylvestri, tunc summi pontificis, imperii 
sedem, scilicet Romam, donavit ecclesise, cum multis aliis imperii dignitati- 
bus." Lib. iii. Compare Fazio degli Uberti, Dittamondo, lib. ii. cap. xii. 



(140) THE VISION. 90—128 

To cure his leprosy, Sylvester's aid ; 

So nie, to cure the fever of his pride, 

This man besought : my counsel to that end 

He ask'd ; and I was silent ; for his words 

Seeni'd drunken : but forthwith he thus resumed : 

' From thy heart banish fear : of all offence 

Thitherto absolve thee. In return, 

' Teach me my purpose so to execute, 

1 That Penestrino cumber earth no more. 

6 Heaven, as thou knowest, I have no power to shut 

c And open : and the keys are therefore twain, 

' The which my predecessor l meanly prized.' 

" Then, yielding to the forceful arguments, 
Of silence as more perilous I deem'd, 
And answer'd : ' Father ! since thou washes t me 
' Clear of that guilt wherein I now must fall, 
' Large promise with performance scant, be sure, 
' Shall make thee triumph in thy lofty seat.' 

" When I was number'd with the dead, then came 
Saint Francis for me ; but a cherub dark 
He met, who cried, ' Wrong me not ; he is mine, 
' And must below to join the wretched crew, 
6 For the deceitful counsel which he gave. 
c E'er since I watch'd him, hovering at his hair. 
6 No power can the impenitent absolve ; 
' Nor to repent, and will, at once consist, 
' By contradiction absolute forbid.' 
Oh misery ! how I shook myself, when he 
Seized me, and cried, ' Thou haply thought'st me not 
* A disputant in logic so exact ! ' 
To Minos down he bore me ; and the judge 
Twined eight times round his callous back the tail, 
Which biting with excess of rage, he spake : 
*. This is a guilty soul, that in the fire 
6 Must vanish.' Hence, perdition-doom'd, I rove 
A prey to rankling sorrow, in this garb." 

When he had thus fulfill'd his words, the flame 
In dolour parted, beating to and fro, 
And writhing its sharp horn. We onward went, 

1 My predecessor.] Celestine V. See notes to Canto iii. 



129—132. HELL, Canto XXVII. (141) 

I and my leader, up along the rock, 

Far as another arch, that overhangs 

The foss, wherein the penalty is paid 

Of those who load them with committed sin. 



CANTO XXVIII. 



ARGUMENT. 

They arrive in the ninth gulf, -where the sowers of scandal, schismatics, and 
heretics, are seen with their limbs miserably maimed or divided in differ- 
ent ways. Among these the Poet finds Mahomet, Piero da Medicina, Cu- 
rio, Mosca, and Bertrand de Born. 

Who, e'en in words unfetter'd, might at full 
Tell of the wounds and blood that now I saw, 
Though he repeated oft the tale ? No tongue 
So vast a theme could equal, speech and thought 
Both impotent alike. If in one band 
Collected, stood the people all, who e'er 
Pour d on Apulia's happy soil 1 their blood, 
Slain by the Trojans 2 , and in that long war 3 , 
When of the rings 4 the measured booty made 
A pile so high, as Rome's historian writes 
Who errs not ; with the multitude, that felt 

1 Happy soil.] There is a strange discordance here among the expounders. 
" Fortunata terra." Because of the vicissitudes of fortune which it ex- 
perienced : Landino. Fortunate, with respect to those who conquered in it : 
Vellutello. Or on account of its natural fertility : Venturi. The context 
requires that we should understand, by "fortunata," "calamitous," "dis- 
graziata," to which sense the word is extended in the Vocabulary of La 
Crusca : Lombardi. Volpi is silent. On this note the late Archdeacon 
Fisher favoured me with the following remark : " Yolpi is, indeed, silent at 
the passage; but in the article " Puglia," in his second Index, he writes, 
Dante la chiama fortunata, cioe pingue e feconda. This is your own trans- 
lation ; and is the same word in meaning with tvdai/uLtov and felix, in 
Xenophon's Anabasis and Horace passim." 2 The Trojans.] SomeMSS. 
have " Romani ; " and Lombardi has admitted it into the text. Venturi 
had, indeed, before met with the same reading in some edition, but he has 
not told us in which. 3 In that long tear.] The war of Hannibal in Italy. 
" When Mago brought news of his victories to Carthage, in order to make 
his successes more easily credited, he commanded the golden rings to be 
poured out in the senate-house, which made so large a heap, that, as some 
relate, they filled three modii and a half. A more probable account repre-* 
sents them not to have exceeded one modius." Livy, Hist. lib. xxiii. 12. 

4 The rings.] So Frezzi : Non quella, che riempie i moggi d'anella. 

II Quadrir. lib. ii. cap. 9 



(142) THE VISION. 12—44. 

The griding force of Guiscard's Norman steel l , 

And those the rest 2 , whose bones are gather'd yet 

At Ceperano, there where treachery 

Branded the Apulian name, or where beyond 

Thy walls, O Tagliacozzo 3 , without arms 

The old Alardo conquer'd ; and his limbs 

One were to show transpierced, another his 

Clean lopt away ; a spectacle like this 

Were but a thing of nought, to the hideous sight 

Of the ninth chasm. A rundlet, that hath lost 

Its middle or side stave, gapes not so wide 

As one I mark'd, torn from the chin throughout 

Down to the hinder passage : 'twixt the legs 

Dangling his entrails hung, the midriff lay 

Open to view, and wretched ventricle, 

That turns the englutted aliment to dross. 

Whilst eagerly I fix on him my gaze, 
He eyed me, with his hands laid his breast bare, % 
And cried, " Now mark how I do rip me : lo ! 
How is Mohammed mangled : before me 
Walks Ali 4 weeping, from the chin his face 
Cleft to the forelock ; and the others all, 
Whom here thou seest, while they lived, did sow 
Scandal and schism, and therefore thus are rent. 
A fiend is here behind, who with his sword 
Hacks us thus cruelly, slivering again 
Each of this ream, when we have compast round 
The dismal way; for first our gashes close 
Ere we repass before him. But, say who 
Art thou, that standest musing on the rock, 
Haply so lingering to delay the pain 
Sentenced upon thy crimes." — " Him death not yet," 
My guide rejoin'd, "hath overta'en, nor sin 

1 Guiscard's Norman steel.] Robert Guiscard, who conquered the king- 
dom of Naples, and died in 1110. G. Yillani, lib. iv. cap. xviii. He is intro- 
duced in the Paradise, Canto xviii. 2 And those the rest.] The army of 
Manfredi, which, through the treachery of the Apulian troops, was over- 
come by Charles of Anjou in 1265, and fell in such numbers, that the bones 
of the slain were still gathered near Ceperano. G. Villani, lib. vii. cap. ix. 
See the Purgatory, Canto iii. 3 O Tagliacozzo.) He allucles to the vic- 
tory which Charles gained over Conradino, by the sage advice of the Sieur 
de Valeri, in 1268. G. Villani, lib. vii. c. xxvii. 4 Ali.] The disciple of 
Mohammed. 



45—69. HELL, Canto XXVIII. (143) 

Conducts to torment ; but, that he may make 
Full trial of your state, I who am dead 
Must through the depths of hell, from orb to orb, 
Conduct him. Trust my words ; for they are true." 

More than a hundred spirits, when that they heard, 
Stood in the foss to mark me, through amaze 
Forgetful of their pangs. " Thou, who perchance 
Shalt shortly view the sun, this warning thou 
Bear to Dolcino l : bid him, if he wish not 
Here soon to follow me, that with good store 
Of food he arm him, lest imprisoning snows 
Yield him a victim to Novara's power ; 
No easy conquest else :" with foot upraised 
For stepping, spake Mohammed, on the ground 
Then fix'd it to depart. Another shade, 
Pierced in the throat, his nostrils mutilate 
E'en from beneath the eyebrows, and one ear 
Lopt off, who, with the rest, through wonder stood 
Gazing, before the rest advanced, and bared 
His wind-pipe, that without was all o'ersmear'd 
With crimson stain. " O thou ! " said he, " whom sin 
Condemns not, and whom erst (unless too near 
Resemblance do deceive me) I aloft 
Have seen on Latian ground, call thou to mind 
Piero of'Medicina 2 , if again 

1 Dolcino.'] " In 1305, a friar, called Dolcino, who belonged to no regu- 
lar order, contrived to raise in Novara, in Lombardy, a large company of 
the meaner sort of people, declaring himself to be a true apostle of Christ, 
and promulgating a community of property and of wives, with many other 
such heretical doctrines. He blamed the pope, cardinals, and other prelates 
of the holy church, for not observing their duty, nor leading the angelic life, 
and affirmed that he ought to be pope. He was followed by more than three 
thousand men and women, who lived promiscuously on the mountains toge- 
ther, like beasts, and, when they wanted provisions, supplied themselves by 
depredation and rapine. This lasted for two years, till many, being struck 
with compunction at the dissolute life they led, his sect was much diminish- 
ed ; and, through failure of food and the severity of the snows, he was taken 
by the people of Novara, and burnt,, with Margarita, his companion, and 
many other men and women whom his errors had seduced." G. Villani, 
lib. viii. c. lxxxiv. Landino observes, that he was possessed of singular elo- 
quence, and that both he and Margarita endured their fate with a firmness 
worthy of a better cause. For a further account of him, see Muratori, Rer. 
Ital. Script, torn. ix. p. 427. Fazio degli Uberti, speaking of the polygamy 
allowed by Mahomet, adds ; 

E qui con fra Dolcin par che s'intenda. Dittamondo, lib. v. cap. xii. 

% Medicinal] A place in the territory of Bologna. Piero fomented dis- 



(144) THE VISION. 70—94. 

Returning, thou behold'st the pleasant land * 

That from Vercelli slopes to Mercabo ; 

And there instruct the twain 2 , whom Fano boasts 

Her worthiest sons, Guido and Angelo, 

That if 'tis given us here to scan aright 

The future, they out of life's tenement 3 

Shall be cast forth, and whelm'd under the waves 

Near to Cattolica, through perfidy 

Of a fell tyrant. 'Twixt the Cyprian isle 

And Balearic, ne'er hath Neptune seen 

An injury so foul, by pirates done, 

Or Argive crew of old. That one-eyed traitor 

(Whose realm, there is a spirit here were fain 

His eye had still lack'd sight of) them shall bring 

To conference with him, then so shape his end, 

That they shall need not 'gainst Focara's wind 4 

Offer up vow nor prayer." I answering thus : 

" Declare, as thou dost wish that I above 

May carry tidings of thee, who is he, 

In whom that sight doth wake such sad remembrance." 

Forthwith he laid his hand on the cheek-bone 
Of one, his fellow-spirit, and his jaws 
Expanding, cried : " Lo ! this is he I wot of : 
He speaks not for himself : the outcast this, 
Who overwhelmed the doubt in Caesar's mind 5 , 



sensions among the inhabitants of that city, and among the leaders of the 
neighbouring states. x The pleasant land.] Lombardy. 

2 The ticain.] Guido del Cassero and Angiolello da Cagnano, two of the 
worthiest and most distinguished citizens of Fano, were invited by Malatestino 
da Rimini to an entertainment, on pretence that he had some important busi- 
ness to transact with them ; and, according to instructions given by him, they 
were drowned in their passage near Cattolica, between Rimini and Fano. 

3 Out of life's tenement.'] " Fuor di lor vasello," is construed by the old 
Latin annotator on the Monte Casino MS. and by Lombardi, " out of the 
ship." Volpi understands "vasello" to mean "their city or country." 
Others take the word in the sense according to which, though not without 
some doubt, it is rendered in this translation. 4 Focara's wind.] Focara 
is a mountain, from which a wind blows that is peculiarly dangerous to the 
navigators of that coast. 5 The doubt in Ccesar's mind.] Curio, whose 
speech (according to Lucan) determined Julius Caesar to proceed when he 
had arrived at Rimini, (the ancient Ariminum,) and doubted whether he 
should prosecute the civil war. 

Tolle moras : semper nocuit differre paratis. Pharsal. 1. i. 281. 
Haste then thy towering eagles on their way ; 
When fair occasion calls, 'tis fatal to delay. Rowe* 



95—124. HELL, Canto XXVIII. (145) 

Affirming that delay to men prepared 

Was ever harmful." Oh ! how terrified 

Methought was Curio, from whose throat was cut 

The tongue, which spake that hardy word. Then one, 

Maim'd of each hand, uplifted in the gloom 

The bleeding stumps, that they with gory spots 

Sullied his face, and cried ; " Remember thee 

Of Mosca ! too ; I who, alas ! exclaim'd, 

' The deed once done, there is an end,' that proved 

A seed of sorrow to the Tuscan race." 

I added : " Ay, and death to thine own tribe." 
Whence, heaping woe on woe, he hurried off, 
As one grief-stung to madness. But I there 
Still linger'd to behold the troop, and saw 
Thing, such as I may fear without more proof 
To tell of, but that conscience makes me firm, 
The boon companion 2 , who her strong breastplate 
Buckles on him, that feels no guilt within, 
And bids him on and fear not. Without doubt 
I saw, and yet it seems to pass before me, 
A headless trunk, that even as the rest 
Of the sad flock paced onward. By the hair 
It bore the sever'd member, lantern-wise 
Pendent in hand, which look'd at us, and said, 
" Woe 's me ! " The spirit lighted thus himself ; 
And two there were in one, and one in two. 
How that may be, he knows who ordereth so. 

When at the bridge's foot direct he stood, 
His arm aloft he rear'd, thrusting the head 
Full in our view, that nearer we might hear 

1 Mosca.] Buondelmonte was engaged to many a lady of the Amidei 
family, but broke his promise, and united himself to one of the Donati. 
This was so much resented by the former, that a meeting of themselves and 
their kinsmen was held, to consider of the best means of revenging the in- 
sult. Mosca degli Uberti, or de' Lamberti, persuaded them to resolve on 
the assassination of Buondelmonte, exclaiming to them, " the thing once 
done, there is an end." The counsel and its effects were the source of many 
terrible calamities to the state of Florence. " This murder," says G. Vil- 
lani, lib. v. cap. xxxviii., " was the cause and beginning of the accursed 
Guelph and Ghibelline parties in Florence." It happened in 1215. See the 
Paradise, Canto xvi. 139. 

8 The boon companion.] 

What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted ? 

Shakspeare, 2 Hen. VI. act iii. sc. 2. 
L 



(146) THE VISION. 125—138. 

The words, which thus it utter'd : " Now behold 
This grievous torment, thou, who breathing go'st 
To spy the dead : behold, if any else 
Be terrible as this. And, that on earth 
Thou mayst bear tidings of me, know that I 
Am Bertrand 1 , he of Born, who gave king John 
The counsel mischievous. Father and son 
I set at mutual war. For Absalom 
And David more did not Ahitophel, 
Spurring them on maliciously to strife. 
For parting those so closely knit, my brain 
Parted, alas 1 I carry from its source, 
That in this trunk inhabits. Thus the law 
Of retribution fiercely works in me." 



CANTO XXIX. 



ARGUMENT. 

Dante, at the desire of Virgil, proceeds onward to the bridge that crosses the 
tenth gulf, from whence he hears the cries of the alchemists and forgers, 
who are tormented therein ; but not being able to discern any thing on 
account of the darkness, they descend the rock, that bounds this the last 
of the compartments in which the eighth circle is divided, and then behold 
the spirits who are afflicted by divers plagues and diseases. Two of them, 
namely, Grifolino of Arezzo and Capocchio of Sienna, are introduced 
speaking. 

So were mine eves inebriate with the view 
Of the vast multitude, whom various wounds 

. : 

1 Bertrand.'] Bertrand de Born, "\ icomte de Hautefort, near Perigueux 
in Guienne, who incited John to rebel against his father, Henry II. of 
England. Bertrand holds a distinguished place among the Provencal poets. 
He is quoted in Dante, de Tulg. Eloq. lib. ii. cap. 2. where it is said, " that 
he treated of war, which no Italian poet had yet done." " Anna vero nul- 
lum Italum adhuc poetasse invenio." The triple division of subjects for 
poetry, made in this chapter of the de Vulg. Eloq., is very remarkable. It 
will be found in a note on Purgatory, Canto xxvi. 113. For the translation 
of some extracts from Bertrand de Bom's poems, see Millot, Hist. Litteraire 
des Troubadours, torn. i. p. 210 ; but the historical parts of that work are, I 
believe, not to be relied on. Bertrand had a son of the same name, who 
wrote a poem against John, king of England. It is that species of composi- 
tion called the serventese ; and is in the Vatican, a MS. hi Cod. 3204. See 
Bastero. La Crusca Provenzale, Roma. 1724. p. 80. For many particulars 
respecting both Bertrands, consult Raynouard's Poesies des Troubadours ; in 
which excellent work, and in his Lexique Roman, Paris, 1838, several of 
their poems, in the Provencal language, may be seen. 

■ 



3—38. HELL, Canto XXIX. (147) 

Disfigured, that they long'd to stay and weep. 

But Virgil roused me : " What yet gazest on ? 
Wherefore doth fasten yet thy sight below 
Among the maim'd and miserable shades ? 
Thou hast not shown in any chasm beside 
This weakness. Know, if thou wouldst number them, 
That two and twenty miles the valley winds 
Its circuit, and already is the moon 
Beneath our feet : the time permitted now 
Is short ; and more, not seen, remains to see." 

" If thou," I straight replied, " hadst weigh'd the cause, 
For which I look'd, thou hadst perchance excused 
The tarrying still." My leader part pursued 
His way, the while I follow'd, answering him, 
And adding thus : " Within that cave I deem, 
Whereon so fixedly I held my ken, 
There is a spirit dwells, one of my blood, 
Wailing the crime that costs him now so dear." 

Then spake my master : "Let thy soul no more 
Afflict itself for him. Direct elsewhere 
Its thought, and leave him. At the bridge's foot 
I mark'd how he did point with menacing look 
At thee, and heard him by the others named 
Geri of Bello 1 . Thou so wholly then 
Wert busied with his spirit, who once ruled 
The towers of Hautefort, that thou lookedst not 
That way, ere he was gone." — " O guide beloved ! 
His violent death yet unavenged," said I, 
" By any, who are partners in his shame, 
Made him contemptuous ; therefore, as I think, 
He pass'd me speechless by ; and, doing so, 
Hath made me more compassionate his fate." 

So we discoursed to where the rock first show'd 
The other valley, had more light been there, 
E'en to the lowest depth. Soon as we came 
O'er the last cloister in the dismal rounds 

1 Geri of Bello.'] A kinsman of the Poet's, who was murdered by one of 
the Saechetti family. His being placed here, may be considered as a proof 
that Dante was more impartial in the allotment of his punishments than has 
generally been supposed. He was the son of Bello, who was brother to 
Bellincione, our Poet's grandfather. Pelli, Mem. per la Vita di Dante. 
Opere di Dante. Zatta ediz. torn. iv. part. ii. p. 23. 

L 2 



(14S) THE VISION. 39—60. 

Of Malebolge, and the brotherhood 
Were to our view exposed, then many a dart 
Of sore lament assail' d me, headed all 
With points of thrilling pity, that I closed 
Both ears against the volley with mine hands. 

As were the torment \ if each lazar-house 
Of Yaldichiana 2 , in the sultry time 
'Twixt July and September, with the isle 
Sardinia and Maremma's pestilent fen 3 , 
Had heap'd their maladies all in one foss 
Together : such was here the torment : dire 
The stench, as issuing steams from fester'd limbs. 

We on the utmost shore of the long rock 
Descended still to leftward. Then my sight 
Was livelier to explore the depth, wherein 
The minister of the most mighty Lord, 
All-searching Justice, dooms to punishment 
The forgers noted on her dread record. 

More rueful was it not methinks to see 
The nation in ^Egina 4 droop, what time 
Each living thing, e'en to the little worm, 
All fell, so full of malice was the air, 

1 As were the torme?it.] It is very probable that these lines gave Milton 
the idea of his celebrated description : 

Immediately a place 
Before their eyes appear'd, sad, noisome, dark. 
A lazar-house it seein'd, wherein were laid 
Numbers of all diseased, all maladies, &c. P. L. b. xi. 477- 
Yet the enumeration of diseases, which follows, appears to haye been taken 
by Milton from the Quadriregio : 

Quivi eran zoppi, monchi, sordi, e orbi, 
Quiyi era il mal podagrico e di fianco, 
Quivi la frenesia coglfocchi torbi. 
Quivi il dolor gridante, e non mai stanco, 
Quiyi il catarro con la gran cianfarda, 
L'asma, la polmonia quiyi eran' anco. 
L'idropisia quivi era grave e tarda, 
Di tutte febbri quel piano era pieno, 
Quivi quel mal, che par ehe la carne arda. Lib. ii. cap. 8. 

2 Of Valdi-chiana.'] The valley through which passes the river Chiana, 
bounded by Arezzo, Cortona, Montepulciano, and Chiusi. In the heat of 
autumn it was formerly rendered unwholesome by the stagnation of the 
water, but has since been drained by the Emperor Leopold II. The Chi- 
ana is mentioned as a remarkably sluggish stream, in the Paradise, Canto 
xiii. 21. 3 Maremma's pestilent fen.] See note to Canto xxv. v. 18. 

4 In JEgtnaJ] He alludes to the fable of the ants changed into Myrmi- 
dons. Ovid, Met. lib. vii. 



61—101. HELL, Canto XXIX. (149) 

(And afterward, as bards of yore have told, 

The ancient people were restored anew 

From seed of emmets,) than was here to see 

The spirits, that languish'd through the murky vale, 

Up-piled on many a stack. Confused they lay, 

One o'er the belly, o'er the shoulders one 

RolTd of another ; sideling crawl'd a third 

Along the dismal pathway. Step by step 

We journey' d on, in silence looking round, 

And listening those diseased, who strove in vain 

To lift their forms. Then two I mark'd, that sat 

Propt 'gainst each other, as two brazen pans 

Set to retain the heat. From head to foot, 

A tetter bark'd them round. Nor saw I e'er 

Groom currying so fast, for whom his lord 

Impatient waited, or himself perchance 

Tired with long watching, as of these each one 

Plied quickly his keen nails, through furiousness 

Of ne'er abated pruriency. The crust 

Came drawn from underneath in flakes, like scales 

Scraped from the bream, or fish of broader mail. 

" O thou ! who with thy fingers rendest off 
Thy coat of proof," thus spake my guide to one, 
" And sometimes makest tearing pincers of them, 
Tell me if any born of Latian land 
Be among these within : so may thy nails 
Serve thee for everlasting to this toil." 

"Both are" of Latium," weeping he replied, 
" Whom tortured thus thou seest : but who art thou 
That hast inquired of us ? " To whom my guide : 
" One that descend with this man, who yet lives, 
From rock to rock, and show him hell's abyss." 

Then started they asunder, and each turn'd 
Trembling toward us, with the rest, whose ear 
Those words redounding struck. To me my liege 
Address'd him : " Speak to them whate'er thou list." 

And I therewith began : " So may no time 
Filch your remembrance from the thoughts of men 
In the upper world, but after many suns 
Survive it, as ye tell me, who ye are, 
And of what race ye come. Your punishment, 



(150) THE VISION. 102—122. 

Unseemly and disgustful in its kind, 

Deter you not from opening thus much to me.' r 

" Arezzo was my dwelling l , M answer'd one, 
u And me Albero of Sienna brought 
To die by fire : but that, for which I died, 
Leads me not here. True is, in sport I told him. 
That I had learn'd to wing my flight in air ; 
And he, admiring much, as he was void 
Of wisdom, wilFd me to declare to him 
The secret of mine art : and only hence, 
Because I made him not a Daedalus, 
Prevail' d on one supposed his sire to burn me. 
But Minos to this chasm, last of the ten, 
For that I practised alchemy on earth, 
Has doom'd me. Him no subterfuge eludes." 

Then to the bard I spake : " Was ever race 
Light as Sienna's 2 ? Sure not France herself 
Can show a tribe so frivolous and vain." 

The other leprous spirit heard my words, 
And thus return'd : " Be Stricca 3 from this charge 
Exempted, he who knew so temperately 

1 Arezzo was my dwe!Ii?2g.] Grifolino of Arezzo, who promised Albero, 
son of the Bishop of Sienna, that he would teach him the art of flying ; and, 
because he did not keep his promise, Albero prevailed on his father to have 
him burnt for a necromancer. 

2 Was eve?- race 

Light as Sie/ina's?] The same imputation is again cast on the Sien- 
nese, Purg. Canto xiii. 141. s Stricca.] This is said ironically. Stricca. 
Xiccolo Salimbeni, Caccia of Asciano, and Abbagliato or Meo de' Folcae- 
chieri, belonged to a company of prodigal and luxurious young men in 
Sienna, called the "brigata godereccia.'" Xiccolo was the inventor of a 
new manner of using cloves in cookery, not very well understood by the 
commentators, and which was termed the " costuma ricca" Pagliarini, in 
his Historical Observations on the Quadriregio, lib. iii. cap. 13. adduces a 
passage from a MS. History of Sienna, in which it is told that these spend- 
thrifts, out of the sum raised from the sale of their estates, built a palace, 
which they inhabited in common, and made the receptacle of their apparatus 
for luxurious enjoyment ; and that, amongst their other extravagancies, they 
had their horses shod with silver, and forbade their servants to pick up the 
precious shoes if they dropped off. The end was, as might be expected, ex- 
treme poverty and wretchedness. Landino says, they spent two hundred 
thousand florins in twenty months. Horses shod with silver are mentioned 
by Fazio degli XTberti : 

Ancora in quest o tempo si fa visto 

Quel Roberto Guiscardo, che d'argento 

I cavagli ferro per far 1'acquisto. 

Dittamoiido, 1. ii. c. 24, as corrected by Perticari. 



123—133. HELL, Canto XXIX. (151) 

To lay out fortune's gifts ; and Niccolo, 
Who first the spice's costly luxury 
Discover' d in that garden l , where such seed 
Roots deepest in the soil : and be that troop 
Exempted, with whom Caccia of Asciano 
Lavished his vineyards and wide-spreading woods, 
And his rare wisdom Abbagliato 2 show'd 
A spectacle for all. That thou mayst know 
Who seconds thee against the Siennese 
Thus gladly, bend this way thy sharpen' d sight, 
That well my face may answer to thy ken ; 
So shalt thou see I am Capocchio's ghost 3 , 
Who forged transmuted metals by the power 
Of alchemy ; and if I scan thee right, 
Thou needs must well remember how I aped 
Creative nature by my subtle art." 



CANTO XXX. 



ARGUMENT. 

In the same gulf, other kinds of impostors, as those who have counterfeited 
the persons of others, or debased the current coin, or deceived by speech 
under false pretences, are described as suffering various diseases. Sinon 
of Troy and Adamo of Brescia mutually reproach each other with their 
several impostures. 

What time resentment burn'd in Juno's breast 
For Semele against the Theban blood, 
As more than once in dire mischance was rued ; 
Such fatal frenzy seized on Athamas 4 , 

1 In that garden.] Sienna. 2 Abbagliato .] Lombardi understands 
" Abbagliato" not to be the name of a man, but to be the epithet to 
" senno," and construes " E l'abbagliato suo senno proferse," " and mani- 
fested to the world the blindness of their understanding." So little doubt, 
however, is made of there being such a person, that Allacci speaks of his 
grandfather Folcaechiero de' Folcacchieri of Sienna, as one who may dis- 
pute with the Sicilians the praise of being the first inventor of Italian 
poetry. Tiraboschi, indeed, observes, that this genealogy is not authenti- 
cated by Allacci ; yet it is difficult to suppose that he should have men- 
tioned it at all, if Meo de' Folcacchieri, or Abbagliato, as he was called, had 
never existed. Vol. i. p. 95. Mr. Mathias's edit. 3 Capocchio's ghost.] 
Capocchio of Sienna, who is said to have been a fellow-student of Dante's, 
in natural philosophy. 

4 Athamas.] From Ovid, Metam. lib. iv. Protinus JEolides, &c. 



(152) THE VISION. 5—35. 

That he his spouse beholding with a babe 

Laden on either arm, " Spread out," he cried, 

" The meshes, that I take the lioness 

And the young lions at the pass :" then forth 

Stretch'd he his merciless talons, grasping one, 

One helpless innocent, Learchus named, 

Whom swinging down he dash'd upon a rock ; 

And with her other burden *, self- des troy 'd, 

The hapless mother plunged. And when the pride 

Of all presuming Troy fell from its height, 

By fortune overwhelm'd, and the old king 

With his realm perish* d ; then did Hecuba 2 , 

A wretch forlorn and captive, when she saw 

Polyxena first slaughter'd, and her son, 

Her Polydorus 3 , on the wild sea-beach 

Next met the mourner's view, then reft of sense 

Did she run barking even as a dog ; 

Such mighty power had grief to wrench her soul. 

But ne'er the Furies, or of Thebes, or Troy, 

With such fell cruelty were seen, their goads 

Infixing in the limbs of man or beast, 

As now two pale and naked ghosts I saw, 

That gnarling wildly scamper'd, like the swine 

Excluded from his stye. One reach'd Capocchio, 

And in the neck-joint sticking deep his fangs, 

Dragg'd him, that, o'er the solid pavement rubb'd 

His belly stretch'd out prone. The other shape, 

He of Arezzo, there left trembling, spake : 

" That sprite of air is Schicchi 4 ; in like mood 

Of random mischief vents he still his spite." 

To whom I answering : " Oh ! as thou dost hope 

1 With her other burden.'] 

Seque super pontum nullo tardata timore 

Mittit, onusque suum. Ovid, Metam. lib. iv. 

2 Hecuba.'] See Euripides, Hecuba ; and Ovid, Metam. lib. xiii. 

3 Her Polydorus.] 

Aspicit ejectum Polidori in littore corpus. Ovid, Ibid. 

4 Schicchi.] Gianni Schicchi, who was of the family of Cavalcanti, pos- 
sessed such a faculty of moulding his features to the resemblance of others, 
that he was employed by Simon Donati to personate Buoso Donati, then 
recently deceased, and to make a will, leaving Simon his heir ; for which 
service he was remunerated with a mare of extraordinary value, here called 
" the lady of the' herd." 



36—71. HELL, Canto XXX. (153) 

The other may not flesh its jaws on thee, 
Be patient to inform us, who it is, 
Ere it speed hence." — " That is the ancient soul 
Of wretched Myrrha 1 ," he replied, "who burn'd 
With most unholy flame for her own sire, 
And a false shape assuming, so perform' d 
The deed of sin ; e'en as the other there, 
That onward passes, dared to counterfeit 
Donati's features, to feign' d testament 
The seal affixing, that himself might gain, 
For his own share, the lady of the herd." 

When vanish* d the two furious shades, on whom 
Mine eye was held, I turn'd it back to view 
The other cursed spirits. One I saw 
In fashion like a lute, had but the groin 
Been sever'd where it meets the forked part. 
Swoln dropsy, disproportioning the limbs 
With ill-converted moisture, that the paunch 
Suits not the visage, open'd wide his lips, 
Gasping as in the hectic man for drought, 
One towards the chin, the other upward curl'd. 

" ye ! who in this world of misery, 
Wherefore I know not, are exempt from pain," 
Thus he began, " attentively regard 
Adamo's woe 2 . When living, full supply 
Ne'er lack'd me of what most I coveted ; 
One drop of water now, alas ! I crave. 
The rills, that glitter down the grassy slopes 
Of Casentino 3 , making fresh and soft 
The banks whereby they glide to Arno's stream, 
Stand ever in my view ; and not in vain ; 
For more the pictured semblance dries me up, 
Much more than the disease, which makes the flesh 
Desert these shrivel'd cheeks. So from the place, 
Where I transgress'd, stern justice urging me, 
Takes means to quicken more my labouring sighs. 

1 Myrrha.] See Ovid, Metam. lib. x. a Adamo's woe.] Adamo of 
Brescia, at the instigation of Gnido, Alessandro, and their brother Aghi- 
nnlfo, lords of Romena, counterfeited the coin of Florence ; for which crime 
he was burnt. Landino says, that in his time the peasants still pointed out 
a pile of stones near Romena, as the place of his execution. See Troya, 
Veltro Allegorico, p. 25. 3 Casentino.] Romena is a part of Casentino. 



(154) THE VISION. 72—98. 

There is Romena, where I falsified 

The metal with the Baptist's form imprest, 

For which on earth I left my body burnt. 

But if I here might see the sorrowing soul 

Of G-uido, Alessandro, or their brother, 

For Branda's limpid spring ! I would not change 

The welcome sight. One is e'en now within, 

If truly the mad spirits tell, that round 

Are wandering. But wherein besteads me that ? 

My limbs are fetter'd. Were I but so light, 

That I each hundred years might move one inch, 

I had set forth already on this path, 

Seeking him out amidst the shapeless crew, 

Although eleven miles it wind, not less 2 

Than half of one across. They brought me down 

Among this tribe ; induced by them, I stamp 'd 

The florens with three carats of alloy 3 ." 

" Who are that abject pair," I next inquired, 
" That closely bounding thee upon thy right 
Lie smoking, like a hand in winter steep'd 
In the chill stream ?" — "When to this gulf I dropp'd," 
He answer'd, " here I found them ; since that hour 
They have not turn'd, nor ever shall, I ween, 
Till time hath run his course. One is that dame, 
The false accuser 4 of the Hebrew youth ; 
Sinon the other, that false Greek from Troy. 
Sharp fever drains the reeky moistness out, 

1 Brando? s limpid spring .] A fountain in Sienna. 2 Less.] Lom- 
bard! justly concludes that as Adamo wishes to exaggerate the difficulty 
of finding the spirit whom he wished to see, " men," and not " piu," 
("less," and not " more" than the half of a mile,) is probably the true 
reading; for there are authorities for both. 3 The florens xoith three 
carats of alloy.'] The noren was a coin that ought to have had twenty-four 
carats of pure gold. Villani relates, that it was first used at Florence in 
1252, an era of great prosperity in the annals of the republic ; before which 
time their most valuable coinage was of silver. Hist. lib. vi. c. liv. Fazio 
degli XJberti uses the word to denote the purest gold. 

Pura era come l'oro del fiorino. Dittamondo, L. ii. cap. xiv. 

"Among the ruins of Chaucer's house at "Woodstock they found an an- 
cient coin of Florence ; I think, a Florein, anciently common in England. 
Chaucer, Pardon. Tale v. 2290. 

For that the Floraines been so fair and bright. 
Edward the Third, in 1344, altered it from a lower value to 65. Sd. The 
particular piece I have mentioned seems about that value." Warton, Hist, of 
Eng. Poetry , v. ii. sect. ii. p. 44. * The false accuser.] Potiphar's wife. 



99—139. HELL, Canto XXX. (155) 

In such a cloud upsteani'd." When that he heard, 
One, gall'd perchance to be so darkly named, 
With clench'd hand smote him on the braced paunch, 
That like a drum resounded : but forthwith 
Aclamo smote him on the face, the blow 
Returning with his arm, that seem'd as hard. 

" Though my o'erweighty limbs have ta'en from me 
The power to move," said he, " I have an arm 
At liberty for such employ. " To whom 
Was answer' d : " When thou wen test to the fire, 
Thou hadst it not so ready at command, 
Then readier when it coin'd the impostor gold." 

And thus the dropsied : " Ay, now speak'st thou true : 
But there thou gavest not such true testimony, 
When thou wast questional of the truth, at Troy." 

" If I spake false, thou falsely stamp'dst the coin," 
Said Sinon; "I am here for but one fault, 
And thou for more than any imp beside." 

" Remember," he replied, " O perjured one! 
The horse remember, that did teem with death ; 
And all the world be witness to thy guilt." 

" To thine," return'd the Greek, " witness the thirst 
Whence thy tongue cracks, witness the fluid mound 
Rear'd by thy belly up before thine eyes, 
A mass corrupt." To whom the coiner thus : 
" Thy mouth gapes wide as ever to let pass 
Its evil saying. Me if thirst assails, 
Yet I am stuft with moisture. Thou art parch 'd : 
Pains rack thy head : no urging wouldst thou need 
To make thee lap Narcissus' mirror up." 

I was all fix'd to listen, when my guide 
Adm onish' d : "Now beware. A little more, 
And I do quarrel with thee." I perceived 
How angrily he spake, and towards him turn'd 
With shame so poignant, as remember 'd yet 
Confounds me. As a man that dreams of harm 
Befallen him, dreaming wishes it a dream, 
And that which is, desires as if it were not ; 
Such then was I, who, wanting power to speak, 
Wish'd to excuse myself, and all the while 
Excused me, though unweeting that I did. 



(156) THE VISION. 140—145. 

" More grievous fault than thine has been, less shame," 
My master cried, " might expiate. Therefore cast 
All sorrow from thy soul ; and if again 
Chance bring thee where like conference is held, 
Think I am ever at thy side. To hear 
Such wrangling is a joy for vulgar minds." 



CANTO XXXI. 



ARGUMENT. 

The poets, following the sound of a loud horn, are led by it to the ninth 
circle, in which there are four rounds, one enclosed within the other, and 
containing as many sorts of Traitors ; but the present Canto shows only 
that the circle is encompassed with Giants, one of whom, Antaeus, takes 
them both in his arms and places them at the bottom of the circle. 

The very tongue \ whose keen reproof before 
Had wounded me, that either cheek was stain' d, 
Now minister'd my cure. So have I heard, 
Achilles' and his father's javelin caused 
Pain first, and then the boon of health restored. 

Turning our back upon the vale of woe, 
We cross' d the encircled mound in silence. There 
Was less than day and less than night, that far 
Mine eye advanced not : but I heard a horn 
Sounded so loud, the peal it rang had made 
The thunder feeble. Following its course 
The adverse way, my strained eyes were bent 

1 The very tongue ^\ 

Vulnus in Herculeo quae quondam fecerat hoste 

Vulneris auxiHum Pelias hasta fait. Ovid, Bern. Amor. 47. 
The same allusion was made by Bernard de Yentadour, a Provencal poet 
in the middle of the twelfth century; and Millot obseiwes, that "it was a 
singular instance of erudition in a Troubadour." But it is not impossible, 
as Warton remarks, (Hist, of Engl. Poetry, vol. ii. sect. x. p. 215) but that 
he might hare been indebted for it to some of the early romances. In 
Chaucer's Squier's Tale, a sword of similar quality is introduced : 

And other folk have wondred on the sweard, 

That could so piercen through every thing ; 

And fell in speech of Telephus the king, 

And of Achilles for his queint spere, 

For he couth with it both heale and dere. 
So Shakspeare, Henry VI. P. II. act v. sc. 1. 

Whose smile and frown like to Achilles' spear 

Is able with the change to kill and cure. 



13—45. HELL, Canto XXXI. (157) 

On that one spot. So terrible a blast 

Orlando l blew not, when that dismal rout 

O'erthrew the host of Charlemain, and quench'd 

His saintly warfare. Thitherward not long 

My head was raised, when many a lofty tower 

Methought I spied. "Master/' said I, "what land 

Is this ?'* He answer d straight : " Too long a space 

Of intervening darkness has thine eye 

To traverse : thou hast therefore widely err'd 

In thy imagining. Thither arrived 

Thou well shalt see, how distance can delude 

The sense. A little therefore urge thee on." 

Then tenderly he caught me by the hand ; 
" Yet know," said he, " ere further we advance, 
That it less strange may seem, these are not towers, 
But giants. In the pit they stand immersed, 
Each from his navel downward, round the bank." 

As when a fog disperseth gradually, 
Our vision traces what the mist involves 
Condensed in air ; so piercing through the gross 
And gloomy atmosphere, as more and more 
We near'd toward the brink, mine error fled, 
And fear came o'er me. As with circling round 
Of turrets, Montereggion 2 crowns his walls ; 
E'en thus the shore, encompassing the abyss, 
Was turreted with giants 3 , half their length 
Uprearing, horrible, whom Jove from heaven 
Yet threatens, when his muttering thunder rolls. 

Of one already I descried the face, 
Shoulders, and breast, and of the belly huge 
Great part, and both arms down along his ribs. 

All-teeming Nature, when her plastic hand 
Left framing of these monsters, did display 

1 Orlando.] "When Charlemain with all his peerage fell 

At Fontarabia. Milton, P. L. b. i. 586. 

See Warton's Hist, of Eng. Poetry, toI. i. sect, iii. p. 132. " This is the 
horn which Orlando won from the giant Jatmund, and which, as Turpin 
and the Islandic bards report, was endued with magical power, and might 
be heard at the distance of twenty miles. " Charlemain and Orlando are 
introduced in the Paradise, Canto xviii. 2 Montereggion.] A castle near 
Sienna. 3 Giants.] The giants round the pit, it is remarked by Warton, 
are in the Arabian yein of fabling. See D'Herbelot, Bibl. Qrientale. V. 
Rocail. p. 717. a. 



158 THE VISION. 46—76. 

Past doubt her wisdom, taking from mad "Wai 
Such slaves to do his bidding : and if she 

Repent her not of the elephant and whale. 

TVho ponders well confesses her therein 

Wiser and more discreet ; for when brute force 

And evil will are back'd with subtlety. 

Resistance none avails. His visage seenrd 

In length and bulk, as doth the pine l that tops 

Saint Peter's Roman fane : and the other bones 

Of like proportion, so that from above 

The bank, which girdled him below, such height 

Arose his stature, that three Frieze" ■:.. 

Had striven in vain to reach but to his hair. 

Full thirty ample palms was he exposed 

Downward from whence a man his garment loops. 

"Rapkel 2 bai ameth. sabi almi :" 

So shouted his tierce lips, which sweeter hymns 

Became not : and mv euide address'd him thus : 

* » <_ 

" senseless spirit ! let thy horn for thee 

Interpret : therewith vent thy rage, if rage 

Or other passion wring thee. Search thy neck. 

There shalt thou rind the belt that binds it on. 

Spirit confused 3 ! lo. on thy mighty breast 

TY~here hangs the baldrick !" Then to me he spake : 

" He doth accuse himself. Ximrod is this. 

Through whose ill counsel in the world no more 

One tongue prevails. But pass we on. nor waste 

Our words : for so each language is to him, 

As his to others, understood by none.' 5 

Then to the leftward turning sped we forth. 
And at a slinsr's throw found another shade 



1 The pineJ] M Tiie lar2*e pine of bronze, "which once ornamented, the top 
of the mole of Adrian, was afterwards employed to decorate the top of the 

belfry of St. Peter: and having ;aec:rdang t:- But: :vri thrown clown by 
hdghtning. it was. after lying some time en the steps ci this palace, cransier- 
red to the place where it new is. in :he P :pe's garden, by the side :•: the 
great corridere o: Belvedere. In the time ■:■: ear pzet. the pine ^-s then 
neher on the belfry or on the steps of St. Peter." Lombard*. '- He:::*-!. 
§c.l These unmeaning sounds, it is supposed, are meant to express the 
confusion of languages at the bunding of the tower of BabeL : s p iri.t 

\fiised.] I had e:n : translated"" Wild spirit!" and hare altered i: at 
the' suggestion of Mr. Darley. who well observes, that l \ anima confasa is 
peculiarly appropriate to Ximrod, the author of the confusion at BabeL 



77—114. HELL, Canto XXXI. (159) 



Far fiercer and more huge. I cannot say 

What master hand had girt him ; but he held 

Behind the right arm fetter' d, and before, 

The other, with a chain, that fasten' d him 

From the neck down ; and five times round his form 

Apparent met the wreathed links. " This proud one 

Would of his strength against almighty Jove 

Make trial," said my guide : " whence he is thus 

Requited : Ephialtes him they call. 

Great was his prowess, when the giants brought 

Fear on the gods : those arms, which then he plied, 

Now moves he never." Forthwith I return'd : 

" Fain would I, if 't were possible, mine eyes, 

Of Briareus immeasurable, gain'd 

Experience next." He answer'd : " Thou shalt see 

Not far from hence Antaeus, who both speaks 

And is unfetter' d, who shall place us there 

Where guilt is at its depth. Far onward stands 

Whom thou wouldst fain behold, in chains, and made 

Like to this spirit, save that in his looks 

More fell he seems." By violent earthquake rock'd 

Ne'er shook a tower, so reeling to its base, 

As Ephialtes. More than ever then 

I dreaded death ; nor than the terror more 

Had needed, if I had not seen the cords 

That held him fast. We, straightway journeying on, 

Came to Antaeus, who, five ells complete 

Without the head, forth issued from the cave. 

" O thou, who in the fortunate vale ! , that made 
Great Scipio heir of glory, when his sword 
Drove back the troop of Hannibal in flight, 
Who thence of old didst carry for thy spoil 
An hundred lions ; and if thou hadst fought 
In the high conflict on thy brethren's side, 
Seems as men yet believed, that through thine arm 
The sons of earth had conquer' d ; now vouchsafe 
To place us down beneath, where numbing cold 
Locks up Cocytus. Force not that we crave 

1 The fortunate vale.] The country near Carthage. See Liv. Hist. 1. 
xxx. and Lucan, Phars. 1. iv. 590, &c. Dante has kept the latter of these 
writers in his eye throughout all this passage. 



(1G0) THE VISION. 115—136. 

Or Tityus' help or Typhon's. Here is one 
Can give what in this realm ye covet. Stoop 
Therefore, nor scornfully distort thy lip. 
He in the upper world can yet bestow 
Renown on thee ; for he doth live, and looks 
For life yet longer, if before the time 
Grace call him not unto herself." Thus spake 
The teacher. He in haste forth stretch'd his hands 
And caught my guide. Alcides l whilom felt 
That grapple, straiten'd sore. Soon as my guide 
Had felt it, he bespake me thus : " This way, 
That I may clasp thee ;" then so caught me up, 
That we were both one burden. As appears 
The tower of Carisenda 2 , from beneath 
Where it doth lean, if chance a passing cloud 
So sail across, that opposite it hangs ; 
Such then Antaeus seem'd, as at mine ease 
I mark'd him stooping. I were fain at times 
To have past another way. Yet in the abyss, 
That Lucifer with Judas low ingulfs, 
Lightly he placed us ; nor, there leaning, stay'd ; 
But rose, as in a bark the stately mast, 

CANTO XXXII. 



ARGUMENT. 

This Canto treats of the first, and, in part, of the second of those rounds, 
into which the ninth and last, or frozen circle, is divided. In the former, 
called Caina, Dante finds Camiccione de' Pazzi, who gives him an account 
of other sinners who are there punished ; and in the next, named Ante- 
nora, he hears in like manner from Bocca degli Abbati who his fellow- 
sufferers are. 

Could I command rough rhymes and hoarse, to suit 
That hole of sorrow o'er which every rock 

1 Alcides.] The combat between Hercules and Antaeus is adduced by 
the poet in his treatise " De Monarchic," lib. ii. as a proof of the judgment 
of God displayed in the duel, according to the singular superstition of those 
times. " Certamine vero dupliciter Dei judicium aperitur vel ex collisione 
virium, sicut fit per duellum pugilum, qui duelliones etiam vocantur ; vel ex 
contentione plurium ad aliquod signum praevalere conantium, sicut fit per 
pugnam athletarum currentium ad bravium. Primus istorum modorum 
apud gentiles figuratus fuit in illo duello Herculis et Anta3i, cujus Lucanus 
meminit in quarto Pharsaliae, et Ovidius in nono de rerum transmutatione.' 
The tower of Carisenda.) The leaning tower at Bologna. 



3—29. HELL, Canto XXXII. (161) 

His firm abutment rears, then might the vein 

Of fancy rise full springing : but not mine 

Such measures, and with faltering awe I touch 

The mighty theme ; for to describe the depth 

Of all the universe, is no emprize 

To jest with, and demands a tongue not used 

To infant babbling 1 . But let them assist 

My song, the tuneful maidens, by whose aid 

Amphion wall'd in Thebes ; so with the truth 

My speech shall best accord. Oh ill-starr'd folk, 

Beyond all others wretched ! who abide 

In such a mansion, as scarce thought finds words 

To speak of, better had ye here on earth 

Been flocks, or mountain goats. As down we stood 

In the dark pit beneath the giants' feet, 

But lower far than they, and I did gaze 

Still on the lofty battlement, a voice 

Bespake me thus : " Look how thou walkest. Take 

Good heed, thy soles do tread not on the heads 

Of thy poor brethren." Thereupon I turn'd, 

And saw before and underneath my feet 

A lake 2 , whose frozen surface liker seem'd 

To glass than water. Not so thick a veil 

In winter e'er hath Austrian Danube spread 

O'er his still course, nor Tanais far remote 

Under the chilling sky. Roll'd o'er that mass 

Had Tabernich or Pietrapana 3 fallen, 

1 A tongue not used 

To infant babbling.'] Ne da lingua, che chiami mamma, o babbo. 
Dante in his treatise " De Vulg. Eloq." speaking of words not admissible in 
the loftier, or, as he calls it, tragic style of poetry, says — " In quorum numero 
nee puerilia propter suam simplicitatem ut Mamma et Babbo," lib. ii. c. vii. 

2 A lake.] The same torment is introduced into the Edda, compiled in 
the eleventh and twelfth centuries. See the " Song of the Sun," translated 
by the Rev. James Beresford, London, 1805 ; and compare Warton's Hist, 
of Eng. Poetry, v. i. dissert, i. and Gray's Posthumous Works, edited by 
Mr. Mathias, y. ii. p. 106. Indeed, as an escape from " the penalty of 
Adam, the season's difference," forms one of the most natural topics of con- 
solation for the loss of life, so does a renewal of that suffering in its fiercest 
extremes of heat and cold bring before the imagination of men in general 
(except indeed the terrors of a self-accusing conscience) the liveliest idea of 
future punishment. Refer to Shakspeare and Milton in the notes to Canto 
iii. 82 ; and see Douce's Illustrations of Shakspeare, 8vo. 1807, v. i. p. 182. 

3 Tabernich or Pietrapana.] The one a mountain in Sclavonia, the 
other in that tract of country called the Garfagnana, not far from Lucca. 

M 



(162) THE VISION. 30—60. 

Not e'en its rim had creak'd. As peeps the frog 
Croaking above the wave, what time in dreams 
The village gleaner oft pursues her toil, 
So, to where modest shame appears *, thus low 
Blue pinch'd and shrined in ice the spirits stood, 
Moving their teeth in shrill note like the stork 2 . 
His face each downward held ; their mouth the cold, 
Their eyes express' d the dolour of their heart. 

A space I look'd around, then at my feet 
Saw two so strictly join'd, that of their head 
The very hairs were mingled. " Tell me ye, 
Whose bosoms thus together press," said I, 
" Who are ye ?" At that sound their necks they bent ; 
And when their looks were lifted up to me, 
Straightway their eyes, before all moist within, 
Distill' d upon their lips, and the frost bound 
The tears betwixt those orbs, and held them there. 
Plank unto plank hath never cramp closed up 
So stoutly. Whence, like two enraged goats, 
They clash' d together : them such fury seized. 

And one, from whom the cold both ears had reft, 
Exclaim' d, still looking downward : "Why on us 
Dost speculate so long ? If thou wouldst know 
Who are these two 3 , the valley, whence his wave 
Bisenzio slopes, did for its master own 
Their sire Alberto, and next him themselves. 
They from one body issued : and throughout 
Caina thou mayst search, nor find a shade 
More worthy in congealment to be fix'd ; 
Not him 4 , whose breast and shadow Arthur's hand 
At that one blow dissever' d ; not Focaccia 5 ; 

1 To where modest shame appears.'] " As high, as to the face." 

2 Moving their teeth in shrill note like the stork.'] 

Mettendo i denti in nota di cicogna. 
So Boccaccio, G. yiii. N. 7. " Lo scolar eattiyello quasi cicogna divenuto si 
forte batteva i denti." 3 Who are these two.] Alessandro and Napo- 

leone, sons of Alberto Alberti, who murdered each other. They were pro- 
prietors of the yalley of Falterona, where the Bisenzio has its source, a river 
that falls into the Amo about six miles from Florence. 4 Not him.] 
Mordrec, son of King Arthur. In the romance of Lancelot of the Lake, 
Arthur, haying discovered the traitorous intentions of his son, pierces him 
through with the stroke of his lance, so that the sunbeam passes through 
the body of Mordrec ; and this disruption of the shadow is no doubt what 
our Poet alludes to in the text. 5 Focaccia.] Focaccia of Cancellieri, 



61—88. HELL, Canto XXXII. (163) 

No, not this spirit, whose o'erjutting head 
Obstructs my onward view : he bore the name 
Of Mascheroni x : Tuscan if thou be, 
Well knowest who he was. And to cut short 
All further question, in niy form behold 
What once was Camiccione 2 . I await 
Carlino 3 here my kinsman, whose deep guilt 
Shall wash out mine." A thousand visages 
Then mark'd I, which the keen and eager cold 
Had shaped into a doggish grin ; whence creeps 
A shivering horror o'er me, at the thought 
Of those frore shallows. While we journey'd on 
Toward the middle, at whose point unites 
All heavy substance, and I trembling went 
Through that eternal chilness, I know not 
If will 4 it were, or destiny, or chance, 
But, passing 'midst the heads, my foot did strike 
With violent blow against the face of one. 

"Wherefore dost bruise me?" weeping he exclaim' d. 
" Unless thy errand be some fresh revenge 
For Montaperto 5 , wherefore troublest me?" 

I thus : " Instructor, now await me here. 
That I through him may rid me of my doubt : 
Thenceforth what haste thou wilt." The teacher paused ; 
And to that shade I spake, who bitterly 
Still cursed me in his wrath. " What art thou, speak, 
That railest thus on others ? " He replied : 

" Now who art thou, that smiting others' cheeks, 

— • — , 

(the Pistoian family,) whose atrocious act of revenge against his uncle is 
said to have given rise to the parties of the Bianchi and Neri, in the year 
1300. See G. Villain, Hist. lib. viii. c.xxxvii. and Macchiavelli, Hist. lib. ii. 
The account of the latter writer differs much from that given by Landino in 
his Commentary. * Mascheroni.] Sassol Mascheroni, a Florentine, who 
also murdered his uncle. 2 Camiccione.] Camiccione de' Pazzi of Val- 

darno, by whom his kinsman Ubertino was treacherously put to death. 

3 Carlino.] One of the same family. He betrayed the Castel di Piano Tra- 
vigne, in Yaldarno, to the Florentines, after the refugees of the Bianca and 
Ghibelline party had defended it against a siege for twenty-nine days, in the 
summer of 1302. See G. Yillani, lib. viii. c. lii. and Dino Conrpagni, lib. ii. 

4 If will.] "Whether upheld by strength, or chance, or fate. 

Milton, P. L. b. i. 133. 

5 Montaperto.] The defeat of the Guelfi at Montaperto, occasioned by 
the treachery of Bocca degli Abbati, who, during the engagement, cut oif 
the hand of Giacopo del Vacca de' Pazzi, bearer of the Florentine standard. 
G. Villani, lib. vi. c. lxxx. and notes to Canto x. This event happened in 1260. 

M 2 



(164) THE VISION. 69—118. 

Through Auteuora 1 roamest. with such force 
As were past sufferance, wert thou living still?" 

" And I am living, to thy joy perchance," 
Was my reply, "if fame be dear to thee, 
That with the rest I may thy name enrol/' 

"The contrary of what I covet most," 
Said he, u thou tender 5 st : hence ! nor vex me more. 
HI knowest thou to flatter in this vale/' 

Then seizing on his hinder scalp I cried : 
"Name thee, or not a hair shall tarry here." 

"Rend all awav." he answer' d. "vet for that 
I will not tell, nor show thee, who I am, 
Though at my head thou pluck a thousand times." 

Now I had grasp'd his tresses, and stript off 
More than one tuft, he barking, with his eyes 
Drawn in and downward, when another cried. 
" What ails thee, Booca ? Sound not loud enough 
Thy chattering teeth, but thou must bark outright ? 
What devil wrings thee ?" — ;, Xow," said I, "be dumb* 
Accursed traitor ! To thy shame, of thee 
True tidings will I bear." — ;; Off ! " he replied ; 
u Tell what thou list : but, as thou scape from hence, 
To speak of him whose tongue hath been so glib, 
Forget not : here he wails the Frenchman's sold. 
; Him of Duera 2 ,' thou canst say, *'I marked, 
1 Where the starved sinners pine.' If thou be askM 
What other shade was with them, at thy side 
Is Beccaria 3 , whose red gorge distaind 
The biting axe of Florence. Further on. 
If I misdeem not, Soldanieri 4 bides. 

1 Anienora~\ " So called from Anterior, who. according to Dictys Cretensis 
[de Bello Troj. lib. v.) and Dares Phrygius (De Excidio Trojxe) betrayed 
Troy Ms country.'' Lombard*. See note on Purg. Canto y. "o. Antenor 
acts this part in Boccaccio's Filostrato. and in Chaucer's Troilns and Creseide. 
2 Him of Duera.'] Bnoso of Cremona, of the family of Duera. who was 
bribed by Guy de Montfort. to leave a pass between Piedmont and Parma, 
with the defence of which he had been intrusted by the Ghibellines, open 
to the army of Charles of Anjou. A. D. 126-5. at which the people of Cre- 
mona were so enraged, that they extirpated the whole family. G. Villain, 
lib. Yii. c. iy. 3 Beccaria.'] Abbot of Tallombrosa. who was the Pope's 
Legate at Florence, where his intrigues in faYour of the Ghibellines being 
discoYered, he was beheaded. I do not find the occurrence in Tiilani. nor 
do the commentators say to what Pope he was legate. By Landino hr is re- 
ported to haYe been from Parma ; by Telluteilo, from PaYia. 4 ieri.] 



119—136. HELL, Canto XXXII. (165) 

"With Ganellon \ and Tribaldello 2 , him 
Who oped Faenza when the people slept." 

We now had left him, passing on our way, 
When I beheld two spirits by the ice 
Pent in one hollow, that the head of one 
Was cowl unto the other ; and as bread 
Is raven' d up through hunger, the uppermost 
Did so apply his fangs to the other's brain, 
Where the spine joins it. Not more furiously 
On Menalippus' temples Tydeus 3 gnawed, 
Than on that skull and on its garbage he. 

" O thou ! who show'st so beastly sign of hate 
'Gainst him thou prey'st on, let me hear," said I, 
" The cause, on such condition, that if right 
Warrant thy grievance, knowing who ye are, 
And what the colour of his sinning was, 
I may repay thee in the world above, 
If that, wherewith I speak, be moist so long." 



CANTO XXXIII. 



ARGUMENT. 

The Poet is told by Count Ugolino de' Gherardeschi of the cruel manner in 
which he and his children were famished in the tower at Pisa, by com- 
mand of the Archbishop Ruggieri. He next discourses of the third round, 
called Ptolomea, wherein those are punished who have betrayed others 
under the semblance of kindness ; and among these he finds the Friar 
Alberigo de' Manfredi, who tells him of one whose soul was already tor- 
mented in that place, though his body appeared still to be alive upon the 
earth, being yielded up to the governance of a fiend. 

" Gianni Soldanieri," says Yillani, Hist. lib. vii. c. xiv. " put himself at the 
head of the people, in the hopes of rising into power, not aware that the re- 
sult would be mischief to the Ghibelline party, and his own ruin ; an event 
which seems ever to have befallen him who has headed the populace in 
Florence." — A. D. 1266. l Ganellon.'] The betrayer, of Charlemain, 

mentioned by Archbishop Turpin. He is a common instance of treachery 
with the poets of the middle ages. 

Trop son fol e mal pensant, 

Pis Valent que Guenelon. Thibaut, Roi de Navarre. 

O new Scariot and new Ganilion, 

O false dissembler, &c. Chaucer, Nonne's Trieste's Tale. 
And in the Monke's Tale, Peter of Spaine. 

2 Tribaldello.] Tribaldello de' Manfredi, who was bribed to betray the 
city of Faenza, A. D. 1282. G. Villani, lib. vii. c. lxxx. 3 Tydeus.] See 
Statius, Theb. lib. viii. ad finem. 



(166) THE VISION. 1—14. 

His jaws uplifting from their fell repast. 

That sinner wiped them on the hairs o' the head, 

Which he behind had mangled, then began : 

11 Thy will obeying. I call up afresh 

Sorrow past cure : which, but to think of. wrings 

My heart ; or ere I tell on 't. But if words. 

That I may utter, shall prove seed to bear 

Fruit of eternal infamy to him. 

The traitor whom I gnaw at. thou at once 

Shalt see me speak and weep. TTho thou mayst be 

I know not. nor how here below art come : 

But Florentine thou seemest of a truth. 

When I do hear thee. Know. I was on earth 

Count Ugolino l . and the Archbishop he 

1 Ct ~ Ugoli?io.] "In the year 125 N . in the month, of July, Pisa was 

much divided by competitors for the sovereignty ; one party, composed of 
certain of the G-uelh, being headed by The Judge Nino di Galhixa cle' 
Visconti : another, consisting of others of the same faction, by the Count 
Ugolino de* Grherardesehi : and a third by the Archbishop Puggieri degli 
Ubaldini. with the Lanfranehi, Sismendi. Grualandi, and ether Gmbeliine 
houses. The Count ITgouue. te euoeet his purpose, unit ed with the Arch«- 
bishop and his party, and having betrayed Nino, his sister'? son. they con- 
trived that he and his followers should either be driven out of Pisa, or their 
persons seized. Nino hearing this, and not seeing any means of defending 
himself, retired to Calci. his castle, and formed an alliance with the Floren- 
tines and people of Lucca, arainst the Pi>ons. The Ceuut. before Nino was 
gone, in order to cover his treachery, when every thin, was settled for iue 
expulsion, quitted Pisa, and repaired to a manor of his called Settimo ; 
whence, as seen as he was informed of Nino's departure, he returned to Pisa 
with great rejoicing and festivity, and was elevated to the supreme power 
with every demonstration of triumph and honour. But his greatness was 
not of long continuance. It pleased the Almighty that a total reverse of 
fortune should ensue, as a punishment for his acts of treachery end guilt; 
for he was said to have poisoned the Count Anselmo da Capraia. his sister's 
son. on account of the envy and fear excited in his mind by the high esteem 
in which the gracious manners of Anselmo were held by the Pisans. — The 
power of the Gruelfi being so much d imini shed, the Archbishop devised 
; ns to betray the Count Ugolino. and caused him to be suddenly attacked 
in his palace by the toy of the people, whom he had exasp e: : : by telling 
them that Ugolino had betrayed Pisa, and given up then castles to the 
citizens of Florence and of Lucca. He was immediately compelled to Bar- 
render : his bastard son and Ins grandson fell in the assault : and two of his 
sons, with their two sons also, were conveyed to prison. " G. YiUani. lib. 
vii. c. cxx. ,; In the following March, the Pisans. who had imprisoned the 
Count Ugolino, with two of his sons and two of his grandchildren, the off- 
spring of his son the Count Guelfo. in a tower :u the Piazza of the Anziani, 
caused the tower to be locked, the key thrown into the Arno. and all food to 
be withheld from them. In a few days they died of hunger : but the Count 
first with loud cries declared his penitence, and yet neither priest nor friar 
was allowed to shrive him. All the fire, when dead, were dragged out of 



15—45. HELL, Canto XXXIII. (167) 

Ruggieri. Why I neighbour him so close, 
Now list. That through effect of his ill thoughts 
In him my trust reposing, I was ta'en 
And after murder'd, need is not I tell. 
What therefore thou canst not have heard, that is, 
How cruel was the murder, shalt thou hear, 
And know if he have wrong'd me. A small grate 
Within that mew, which for my sake the name 
Of famine bears, where others yet must pine, 
Already through its opening several moons l 
Had shown me, when I slept the evil sleep 
That from the future tore the curtain off. 
This one, methought, as master of the sport, 
Rode forth to chase the gaunt wolf, and his whelps, 
Unto the mountain 2 which forbids the sight 
Of Lucca to the Pisan. With lean brachs 
Inquisitive and keen, before him ranged 
Lanfranchi with Sismondi and Gualandi. 
After short course the father and the sons 
Seem'd tired and lagging, and methought I saw 
The sharp tusks gore their sides. When I awoke, 
Before the dawn, amid their sleep I heard 
My sons (for they were with me) weep and ask 
For bread. Right cruel art thou, if no pang 
Thou feel at thinking what my heart foretold ; 
And if not now, why use thy tears to flow ? 
Now had they waken'd ; and the hour drew near 
When they were wont to bring us food ; the mind 
Of each misgave him through his dream, and I 
Heard, at its outlet underneath lock'd up 
The horrible tower : whence, uttering not a word, 

the prison, and meanly interred ; and from thenceforward the tower was 
called the tower of famine, and so shall ever be." Ibid. c. cxxvii. Troya 
asserts that Dante, for the sake of poetical effect, has much misrepresented 
the real facts. See his Yeltro Allegorico di Dante. Ed. 1826, p. 28, 9. This 
wonld render a conjecture, which the same writer elsewhere hazards, still 
more improbable ; that the story might have been written by Dante when the 
facts were yet recent, and afterwards introduced into his poem. Ibid. p. 96. 
Chancer has briefly told Ugolino's story. See Monke's Tale, Hugeline of Pise. 
1 Several moons.] Many editions, and the greater part of the MSS. in- 
stead of " pit! lune," read " piu lume ;" according to which reading Ugolino 
would say, that the day had broke, and shone through the grated window of 
the prison, before he fell asleep. 2 Unto the mountain.'] The mountain 
S. Giuliano between Pisa and Lucca. 



(168) THE VISION. 46—77. 

I look'd upon the visage of my sons. 

I wept not : so all stone I felt within 1 . 

The j wept : and one, my little Anselm, cried, 

' Thou lookest so ! Father, what ails thee ? ' Yet 

I shed no tear, nor answer'd all that day 

Nor the next night, until another sun 

Came out upon the world. When a faint beam 

Had to our doleful prison made its way, 

And in four countenances I descried 

The image of my own, on either hand 

Through agony I bit ; and they, who thought 

I did it through desire of feeding, rose 

O' the sudden, and cried, ' Father, we should grieve 

; Far less, if thou wouldst eat of us : thou gavest 2 

' These weeds of miserable flesh we wear ; 

6 And do thou strip them off from us again.' 

Then, not to make them sadder, I kept down 

My spirit in stillness. That day and the next 

We all were silent. Ah, obdurate earth ! 

Why open'dst not upon us ? When we came 

To the fourth day, then Gaddo at my feet 

Outstretch'd did fling him, crying, ' Hast no help 

6 For me, my father ! ' There he died ; and e'en 

Plainly as thou seest me, saw I the three 

Fall one by one 'twixt the fifth day and sixth : 

Whence I betook me, now grown blind, to grope 

Over them all, and for three days aloud 

Call'd on them who were dead. Then, fasting got 

The mastery of grief." Thus having spoke, 

Once more upon the wretched skull his teeth 

He fasten'd like a mastiff's 'gainst the bone, 

Firm and unyielding. Oh, thou Pisa ! shame 

1 All stone I felt within.'] " My heart is turn'ti to stone ; I strike it, and 
it hurts my hand." Shakspeare, Othello, act iv. sc. 1. 

2 Thou gavest.] Tu ne Testisti 

Queste misere carni, e tu le spoglia. 
Imitated by Filicaja, Canz. in. 

Di questa Imperial caduca spoglia 

Tu, Signor, me Testisti e tu mi spoglia : 

Ben puoi '1 Regno me tor tu che me '1 desti. 
And by Maffei in the Merope : 

Tu disciogleste 

Queste misere membra e tu le annodi. 



78—110. HELL, Canto XXXIII. (169) 

Of all the people, who their dwelling make 

In that fair region l , where the Italian voice 

Is heard ; since that thy neighbours are so slack 

To punish, from their deep foundations rise 

Capraia and Gorgona 2 , and dam up 

The mouth of Arno ; that each soul in thee 

May perish in the waters. What if fame 

Reported that thy castles were betray'd 

By Ugolino, yet no right hadst thou 

To stretch his children on the rack. For them, 

Brigata, Uguccione, and the pair 

Of gentle ones, of whom my song hath told, 

Their tender years, thou modern Thebes, did make 

Uncapable of guilt. Onward we pass'd, 

Where others, skarfd in rugged folds of ice, 

Not on their feet were turn'd, but each reversed. 

There, very weeping suffers not to weep 3 ; 
For, at their eyes, grief, seeking passage, finds 
Impediment, and rolling inward turns 
For increase of sharp anguish : the first tears 
Hang cluster'd, and like crystal vizors show, 
Under the socket brimming all the cup. 

Now though the cold had from my face dislodged 
Each feeling, as 't were callous, yet me seem'd 
Some breath of wind I felt. " Whence cometh this/' 
Said I, " my Master ? Is not here below 
All vapour quench'd?" — "Thou shalt be speedily," 
He answer'd, " where thine eyes shall tell thee whence, 
The cause descrying of this airy shower." 

Then cried out one, in the chill crust who mourn' d : 
" O souls ! so cruel, that the farthest post 
Hath been assign'd you, from this face remove 
The harden'd veil ; that I may vent the grief 

1 In that fair region.} Del bel paese la, dove '1 si suona. 

Italy, as explained by Dante himself, in his treatise De Vnlg. Eloq. lib. i. 
cap. 8. " Qui autem Si dicunt a praedictis fmibus ( Januensmm) Orientalem 
(Meridionalis Europae partem) tenent ; videlicet usque ad promontorium 
ulud Italian, qua sinus Adriatici maris incipit et Siciliam." 

2 Capraia and Gorgona.'] Small islands near the mouth of the Arno. 

3 There, very weeping suffers not to iveep.] 

Lo pianto stesso li pianger non lascia. 
So Giusto de' Conti, Bella Mano. Son. " Quanto il ciel." 
Che il troppo pianto a me pianger non lassa. 



(170) THE VISION. . 111—134. 

Impregnate at my heart, some little space, 

Ere it congeal again." I thus replied : 

" Say who thou wast, if thou wouldst have mine aid ; 

And if I extricate thee not, far down 

As to the lowest ice may I descend." 

" The friar Alberigo 1 ," answer'd he, 
" Am I, who from the evil garden pluck' d 
Its fruitage, and am here repaid, the date 2 
More luscious for my fig." — " Hah !" I exclaim' d, 
" Art thou too dead ? " — " How in the world aloft 
It fareth with my body," answer'd he, 
" I am right ignorant. Such privilege 
Hath Ptolomea 3 , that oft-times the soul 4 
Drops hither, ere by Atropos divorced. 
And that thou mayst wipe out more willingly 
The glazed tear-drops 5 that o'erlay mine eyes, 
Know that the soul, that moment she betrays, 
As I did, yields her body to a fiend 
Who after moves and governs it at will, 
Till all its time be rounded : headlong she 
Falls to this cistern. And perchance above 
Doth yet appear the body of a ghost, 
Who here behind me winters. Him thou know'st, 
If thou but newly art arrived below. 

1 The friar Alberigo .] Alberigo de* Manfredi of Faenza, one of the Frati 
Godenti, Joyous Friars, who haying quarreled with some of his brotherhood, 
under pretence of wishing to be reconciled, invited them to a banquet, at 
the conclusion of which he called for the fruit, a signal for the assassins to 
rush in and dispatch those whom he had marked for destruction. Hence, 
adds Landino, it is said proverbially of one who has been stabbed, that he 
has had some of the friar Alberigo's fruit. Thus Pulci, Morg. Magg. c. xxv. 

Le frutte amare di frate Alberico. 

2 The date.] Come Dio rende dataro per fico. 

Fazio degli Uberti, Dittamondo, 1. iv. cap. xix. 

3 Ptolomea.'] This circle is named Ptolomea from Ptolemy the son of 
Abubus, by whom Simon and his sons were murdered, at a great banquet 
he had made for them. See 1 Maccabees, ch. xvi. Or from Ptolemy, king 
of Egypt, the betrayer of Pompey the Great. 4 The soul.] Chaucer 
seems to allude to this in the Frere's Tale, where a fiend assumes the person 
of a yeoman, and tells the Sompnour that he shall one day come to a place 
where he shall understand the mystery of such possessions, 

Bet than Virgile, while he was on live, 
Or Dant also. 
See Mr. Southey's Tale of Donica. 

5 The glazed tear-drops.] sorrow's eye, glazed with blinding tears. 

Shakspeare, Rich. II. act ii. sc. 2. 



135—155. HELL, Cakto XXXIII. (171) 

The years are many that have past away, 
Since to this fastness Branca Doria 1 came." 

" Now," answer'd I, "methinks thou mockest me; 
For Branca Doria never yet hath died, 
But doth all natural functions of a man, 
Eats, drinks, and sleeps 2 , and putteth raiment on." 

He thus : " Not yet unto that upper foss 
By th' evil talons guarded, where the pitch 
Tenacious boils, had Michel Zanche reach'd, 
"When this one left a demon in his stead 
In his own body, and of one his kin, 
Who with him treachery wrought. But now put forth 
Thy hand, and ope mine eyes." I oped them not. 
Ill manners were best courtesy to him. 

Ah Genoese ! men perverse in every way, 
With every foulness stain'cl, why from the earth 
Are ye not cancel'd ? Such an one of yours 
I with Romagna's darkest spirit 3 found, 
As, for his doings, even now in soul 
Is in Cocytus plunged, and yet doth seem 
In body still alive upon the earth. 



CANTO XXXIY. 



ARGUMENT. 

In the fourth and last round of the ninth circle, those who hare betrayed 
their benefactors are wholly covered with ice. And in the midst is Lu- 
cifer, at whose back Dante and Virgil ascend, till by a secret path they 
reach the surface of the other hemisphere of the earth, and once more ob- 
tain sight of the stars. 

" The banners 4 of Hell's Monarch do come forth 
Toward us ; therefore look," so spake my guide, 

1 Branca Doria.] The family of Doria was possessed of great influence 
in Genoa. Branca is said to have murdered his father-in-law, Michel Zanche, 
introduced in Canto xxii. 

2 Eats, drinks, and sleeps.] But 'tis a spirit. 

Pro. Xo, wench, it eats and sleeps, and hath such senses 
As we have, such. Shakspeare, Tempest, act i. sc. 2. 

5 Romagna's darkest spirit.] The friar Alberigo. 
4 The banners.] Yexilla regis prodeunt inferni. 

A parody of the first Terse in a hymn that was sung by the church in praise 
of the cross. 



(172) THE VISION. 3—32. 

" If thou discern him." As, when breathes a cloud 
Heavy and dense, or when the shades of night 
Fall on our hemisphere, seems view'd from far 
A windmill l , which the blast stirs briskly round ; 
Such was the fabric then methought I saw. 

To shield me from the wind, forthwith I drew 
Behind my guide : no covert else was there. 

Now came I (and with fear I bid my strain 
Eecord the marvel) where the souls were all 
Whelm' d underneath, transparent, as through glass 
Pellucid the frail stem. Some prone were laid ; 
Others stood upright, this upon the soles, 
That on his head, a third with face to feet 
Arch'd like a bow. When to the point we came, 
Whereat my guide was pleased that I should see 
The creature eminent in beauty once, 
He from before me stepp'd and made me pause. 

"Lo !" he exclaim' d, "lo Dis ; and lo the place, 
Where thou hast need to arm thy heart with strength." 

How frozen and how faint I then became, 
Ask me not, reader ! for I write it not ; 
Since words would fail to tell thee of my state. 
I was not dead nor living 2 . Think thyself, 
If quick conception work in thee at all, 
How I did feel. That emperor, who sways 
The realm of sorrow, at mid breast from the ice 
Stood forth ; and I in stature am more like 
A giant 3 , than the giants are his arms. 
Mark now how great that whole must be, which suits 
With such a part. If he were beautiful 

1 A windmill.'] The author of the Caliph Vathek, in the notes to that 
tale, justly ohserves that it is more than probable that Don Quixote's mis- 
take of the windmills for giants was suggested to Cervantes by this simile. 

2 I was not dead nor livmg.'] 

OUT' hV TOIS (fydLjULEVOLS, 

out' kv XiiiaLV apidfiovfiivri. 

Euripides, Sitpplices, t. 979. Markland's edit. 

turn ibi me nescio quis arripit 

Timidam atque payidam, nee Tivam nee mortuam. 

Plautus, Cwculio, act v. sc. 2. 

3 A giant. ] Nel primo clima sta come signore 

Colli giganti ; ed un delle sue braccie 
Piu che nullo di loro e assai maggiore. 

Frezzi, II Quadrir. lib. ii. cap. i. 



33—46. HELL, Canto XXXIV. (173) 

As he is hideous now, and yet did dare 
To scowl upon his Maker, well from him 
May all our misery flow. Oh what a sight ! 
How passing strange it seem'd, when I did spy 
Upon his head three faces ! : one in front 
Of hue vermilion, the other two with this 
Midway each shoulder join'd and at the crest ; 
The right 'twixt wan and yellow seem'd ; the left 
To look on, such as come from whence old Nile 
Stoops to the lowlands. Under each shot forth 
Two mighty wings, enormous as became 
A bird so vast. Sails 2 never such I saw 
Outstretch'd on the wide sea. No plumes had they, 
But were in texture like a bat 3 ; and these 



1 Three faces.] It can scarcely be doubted, but that Milton derived his 
description of Satan, in those lines — 



-Each passion dimm'd his face 
Thrice changed with pale ire, envy, and despair. P. L. b. iv. 144. 
from this passage, coupled with the remark of Vellutello upon it: " The 
first of these sins is anger, which he signifies by the red face ; the second, re- 
presented by that between pale and yellow, is envy, and not, as others have 
said, avarice ; and the third, denoted by the black, is a melancholy humour 
that causes a man's thoughts to be dark and evil, and averse from all joy and 
tranquillity." Lombardi would understand the three faces to signify the 
three parts of the world then known, in all of which Lucifer had his sub- 
jects : the red denoting the Europeans, who were in the middle ; the yellow, 
the Asiatics, on the right ; and the black, the Africans, who were on the left ; 
according to the position of the faces themselves. 

2 Sails.] Argo non ebbe mai si grande vela, 
Ne altra nave, come l'ali sue ; 
Ne mai tessuta fu si grande tela. 

Frezzi, II Quadrir. lib. ii. cap. xix. 

His sail -broad vans 

He spreads for flight. Milton, P. L. b. ii. 927. 

Compare Spenser, F. Q. b. i. c. xi. st. 10 ; Ben Jonson's Every Man out 
of his Humour, v. 7 ; and Fletcher's Prophetess, act 2. scene 3. In his de- 
scription of Satan, Frezzi has departed not less from Dante than our own 
poet has done ; for he has painted him on a high throne, with a benignant 
and glad countenance, yet full of majesty, a triple crown on his head, six 
shining wings on his shoulders, and a court thronged with giants, centaurs, 
and mighty captains, besides youths and damsels, who are disporting in the 
neighbouring meadows with song and dance ; but no sooner does Minerva, 
who is the author's conductress, present her crystal shield, than all this tri- 
umph and jollity is seen through it transformed into loathsomeness and hor- 
ror. There are many touches in this picture that will remind the reader of 
Milton. 3 Like a bat.] The description of an imaginary being, who is 
called Typhurgo, in the Zodiacus Vitce, has something very like this of 
Dante's Lucifer. 

Ingentem vidi regem, ingentique sedentem 
In solio, crines fiammanti stemmate cinctum, 



(174) THE VISION. 47—63. 

He flapp'd i' fch 1 air. that from him issued still 
Three winds, * :» its depth 

TTas frozen. At six em- m *m 

Adown three chins distill'd vrith bloody foam. 

At every month his teeth a sinner champ'd, 
Bruised as with r mderous engine; so that three 

Were in this guise tormented. But far more 
Than fr hat gnawing, iras the foremost pang'd 
Bv the fierce rending, whenoe oft-times the mm 
Was strip: «:■:' all its mm, " That upper spirit. 
Twho hath worst punishment, so spake my guide. 
"Is Judas, he that hath his head within 
And plies the feet without. Of th' other r 
"Whose heads are under. mom the murk; 
TTho hangs, is Brutus 1 : lo ! how he mm writhe 
And speaks not. The other. Cassias, that ■: 



So larsre of limb. Br. 



it 






Alae hunieris niagnae, quales vesperfilionum 

Membranis contexts amplis — 

Nudus erat longis sed opertns corpora viHis. 

M. Palingenii, Zod. Vit. Kb. ix. 
A mighty kin? I might diseerne, 

Placed high on lofty chaire. 
His haire with fyry garland deckt 

Puft np in fiendish 



Large wings on him. did grow 

Framde like the wings of Hinder mi : e, & : Googe's Translation. 

1 Brutus.] Landino struggles, bnt I fear in Tain, to extricate Bratus 

from the unworUiy lot which is heir 1 him. He maint a ins , that by 

Brutus and Cassias are not meant tat individuals known by those names, 

but any who put a lawful monarch to death. Yet if Caesar was such, the 

conspirators might be regarded as deserving :: their doom. u n:mni: 

ecceilri-T: ex Jamas ~~— commentator, with a spirit becoming one who felt 

that he lived in a free state, u ed al tutt: legni a quaH Roma fosse patria, e 

de' quali restera sempre etema menioria ; legginsi tutte le leggi di qualun- 

: : :-■ \.':li:n ~:fnr in s Tin: ;. . :- r. :~r-r:n: ::".t \ -r = m: si *::' : 1" : \- m:::::: 

[ i amio che a chi uccide il t^^anno. ,, Cowley, as conspicuous for p 

as for his genius, in an ode inscribed with the name of this patrn 

though not free from the usual faults of the poet, is yet a noble one. i 

placea his character in the right point of view — 

En-ir-Tii: B minis! :•:" ill hnm.m ric-r 
Ehe best, till nature was improved by grace. 
If Dante, however, tiered Brutus to have been actuated by evil moti 1 
in putting Caesar to death, the excellence of the patriot's charac ::: inotJ 
respects would only have ggravated his guilt in that particulr i :■: 

autem injustitiae nulla capitaLior est quam coram, qui cum maxime fellt 
id agent, ut viri boni esse videantur." Cic. de Off. lib. i. cap. xiii. 



men, 



64—101. HELL, Canto XXXIV. (175) 

And it is time for parting. All is seen." 

I clipp'd him round the neck ; for so he bade : 
And noting time and place, he, when the wings 
Enough were oped, caught fast the shaggy sides, 
And down from pile to pile descending stepp'd 
Between the thick fell and the jagged ice. 

Soon as he reach' d the point, whereat the thigh 
Upon the swelling of the haunches turns, 
My leader there, with pain and struggling hard, 
Turn'd round his head where his feet stood before, 
And grappled at the fell as one who mounts ; 
That into hell niethought we turn'd again. 

" Expect that by such stairs as these," thus spake 
The teacher, panting like a man forespent, 
" We must depart from evil so extreme :" 
Then at a rocky opening issued forth, 
And placed me on the brink to sit, next join'd 
With wary step my side. I raised mine eyes, 
Believing that I Lucifer should see 
Where he was lately left, but saw him now 
With legs held upward. Let the grosser sort, 
Who see not what the point was I had past, 
Bethink them if sore toil oppress'd me then. 

" Arise," my master cried, " upon thy feet. 
The way is long, and much uncouth the road; 
And now within one hour and half of noon ! 
The sun returns." It was no palace-hall 
Lofty and luminous wherein we stood, 
But natural dungeon where ill-footing was 
And scant supply of light. " Ere from the abyss 
I separate," thus when risen I began : 
" My guide ! vouchsafe few words to set me free 
From error's thraldom. Where is now the ice ? 
How standeth he in posture thus reversed ? 
And how from eve to morn in space so brief 
Hath the sun made his transit ? " He in few 
' Thus answering spake : " Thou deemest thou art still 
On the other side the centre, where I grasp'd 

1 Within one hour and half 'of 'noon.'] The Poet uses the Hebrew manner 
of computing the clay, according to which the third hour answers to our 
twelve o'clock at noon. 






(176) THE VISION. 102—133. 

The abhorred worm that boreth through the world. 

Thou wast on the other side, so long as I 

Descended ; when I turn'd, thou didst o'erpass 

That point l , to which from every part is dragg'd 

All heavy substance. Thou art now arrived 

Under the hemisphere opposed to that, 

Which the great continent doth overspread, 

And underneath whose canopy expired 

The Man, that was born sinless and so lived. 

Thy feet are planted on the smallest sphere, 

Whose other aspect is Judecca. Morn 

Here rises, when there evening sets : and he, 

Whose shaggy pile we scaled, yet standeth fix'd, 

As at the first. On this part he fell down 

From heaven ; and th' earth, here prominent before, 

Through fear of him did veil her with the sea, 

And to our hemisphere retired. Perchance, 

To shun him, was the vacant space left here, 

By what of firm land on this side appears 2 , 

That sprang aloof." There is a place beneath, 

From Belzebub as distant, as extends 

The vaulted tomb 3 ; ^scover'd not by sight, 

But by the sound of brooklet, that descends 

This way along the hollow of a rock, 

Which, as it winds with no precipitous course, 

The wave hath eaten. By that hidden way 

My guide and I did enter, to return 

To the fair world : and heedless of repose 

We climb'd, he first, I following his steps, 

Till on our view the beautiful lights of heaven 

Dawn'd through a circular opening in the cave : 

Thence issuing we again beheld the stars. 

1 That point.'] Monti observes, that if this passage had chanced to meet 
the eye of Newton, it might better have awakened his thought to conceive 
the system of attraction, than the accidental falling of an apple. Proposta, 
v. iii. p te 2. p. lxxviii. 8°. 1824. 2 By what of firm land on this side ap- 
pears.] The mountain of Purgatory. 3 The vaulted tomb.] "Latomba." 
This word is used to express the whole depth of the infernal region. 



THE VISION OF DANTE, 



INrgatorp* 



CANTO I. 



ARGUMENT. 

The Poet describes the delight he experienced at issuing a little before dawn 
from the infernal regions, into the pure air that surrounds the isle of 
Purgatory ; and then relates how, turning to the right, he beheld four 
stars never seen before but by our first parents, and met on his left the 
shade of Cato of Utica, who, haying warned him and Virgil what is need- 
ful to be done before they proceed on their way through Purgatory, dis- 
appears ; and the two poets go towards the shore, where Virgil cleanses 
Dante's face with the dew, and girds him with a reed, as Cato had com- 
manded. 

O'er better waves l to speed her rapid course 
The light bark of my genius lifts the sail, 
Well pleased to leave so cruel sea behind ; 
And of that second region will I sing, 
In which the human spirit from sinful blot 
Is purged, and for ascent to Heaven prepares. 
Here, O ye hallow'd Nine ! for in your train 
I follow, here the deaden'd strain revive ; 
Nor let Calliope refuse to sound 
A somewhat higher song, of that loud tone 
Which when the wretched birds of chattering note 2 

1 O'er better waves.] So Berni, Orl. Inn. lib. ii. c. i. 
Per correr maggior acqua alza le Tele, 
debil navicella del mio ingegno. 
8 Birds of chattering note.] For the fable of the daughters of Pierus, 
who challenged the muses to sing, and were by them changed into magpies, 
see Ovid, Met. lib. v. fab. 5. 

N 



(178) THE VISION. 12—31. 

Had heard, they of forgiveness lost all hope. 

Sweet hue of eastern sapphire, that was spread 
O'er the serene aspect of the pure air, 
High up as the first circle l , to mine eves 
Unwonted joy renew'd, soon as I 'scaped 
Forth from the atmosphere of deadly gloom, 
That had mine eyes and bosom fill'd with grief. 
The radiant planet 2 , that to love invites, 
Made all the orient laugh 3 , and veiFd beneath 
The Pisces' light 4 , that in his escort came. 

To the right hand I turn'd, and fix'd my mind 
On the other pole attentive, where I saw 
Four stars 5 ne'er seen before save by the ken 
Of our first parents 6 . Heaven of their rays 
Seem'd joyous. O thou northern site ! bereft 
Indeed, and widow'd, since of these deprived. 

As from this view I had desisted, straight 
Turning a little towards the other pole, 
There from whence now the wain 7 had disappear d, 
I saw an old man 8 standing by my side 

1 The first circle, .] Either, as some suppose, the moon ; or, as Lombardi 
(who likes to be as far off the rest of the commentators as possible) will 
hare it, the highest circle of the stars. a Planet.] Venus. 3 Made all 
the orient laugh. .] Hence Chaucer, Knight's Tale : 

And all the orisont laugheth of the sight. 
It is sometimes read " orient/" 4 The Pisces' light.] The constella- 

tion of the Fish veiled by the more luminous body of Venus, then a morning 
star. 5 Four stars.] Venturi observes that " Dante here speaks as a 
poet, and almost in the spirit of prophecy ; or, what is more likely, describes 
the heaven about that pole according to his own invention. In our days," 
he adds, " the cross, composed of four stars, three of the second and one of 
the third magnitude, serves as a guide to those who sail from Europe to the 
south ; but in the age of Dante these discoveries had not been made :" yet 
it appears probable, that either from long tradition, or from the relation of 
later voyagers, the real truth might not have been unknown to our Poet. 
Seneca's prediction of the discovery of America may be accounted for in a 
similar manner. But whatever may be thought of this, it is certain that the 
four stars are here symbolical of the four cardinal virtues, Prudence, Justice, 
Fortitude, and Temperance. See Canto xxxi. v. 105. M. Artaud mentions 
a globe constructed by an Arabian in Egypt, with the date of the year 622 
of the Hegira, corresponding to 1225 of our era, in which the southern cross 
is positively marked. See his Histoire de Dante, Ch. xxxi. and xl. 8°. Par. 
1841. s Our first parents.] In the terrestrial paradise, placed, as we 
shall see, by our Poet, on the summit of Purgatory. 7 The icain.] 

Charles's Wain, or Bootes. 

8 An old 7nan.] Cato. 

Secretosque pios ; his dantem jura Catonem. Virg. JEn, viii. 670. 



32—58. PURGATORY, Canto I. (179) 

Alone, so worthy of reverence in his look, 
That ne'er from son to father more was owed. 
Low down his beard, and mix'd with hoary white, 
Descended, like his locks, which, parting, fell 
Upon his breast in double fold. The beams 
Of those four luminaries on his face 
So brightly shone, and with such radiance clear 
Deck'd it, that I beheld him as the sun. 

" Say who are ye, that stemming the blind stream, 
Forth from the eternal prison-house have fled ?" 
He spoke and moved those venerable plumes l . 
" Who hath conducted, or with lantern sure 
Lights you emerging from the depth of night, 
That makes the infernal valley ever black ? 
Are the firm statutes of the dread abyss 
Broken, or in high heaven new laws ordain'd, 
That thus, condemn'd, ye to my caves approach ? " 

My guide, then laying hold on me, by words 
And intimations given with hand and head, 
Made my bent knees and eye submissive pay 
Due reverence ; then thus to him replied : 

" Not of myself I come ; a Dame from heaven 2 
Descending, him besought me in my charge 
To bring. But since thy will implies, that more 
Our true condition I unfold at large, 
Mine is not to deny thee thy request. 
This mortal ne'er hath seen the furthest gloom 3 ; 

The commentators, and Lombardi amongst the rest, might have saved 
themselves and their readers much needless trouble if they would have con- 
sulted the prose writings of Dante with, more diligence. In the Convito, p. 
211, he has himself declared his opinion of the illustrious Roman. " Quale 
uomo, &c." "What earthly man was more worthy to follow God than 
Cato ? Certainly none." And again, p. 212. " Nel nome di cui, &c." " In 
whose name, whatever needs be said concerning the signs of nobility may be 
concluded ; for, in him, that nobility' displays them all throughout all ages." 
1 Venerable plumes. ,] Insperata tuse quum venietpluma superbiae. 

Hor. Carm. lib. iv. ode 10. 
The same metaphor has occurred in Hell, Canto xx. v. 41. 

the plumes, 

That mark'd the better sex. 
It is used by Ford in the Lady's Trial, act iv. sc. 2. 

- Now the down 

Of softness is exchanged for plumes of age, 
■ A Dame from heaven.~\ Beatrice. See Hell, ii. 54. 
s The furthest gloom. ] L'ultima sera. 

N 2 



(180) THE VISION. 59—81. 

But erring by his folly had approach'd 

So near, that little space was left to turn. 

Then, as before I told, I was dispatch' d 

To work his rescue ; and no way remain'd 

Save this which I have ta'en. I have displayed 

Before him all the regions of the bad ; 

And purpose now those spirits to display, 

That under thy command are purged from sin. 

How I have brought him would be long to say. 

From high descends the virtue, by whose aid 

I to thy sight and hearing him have led. 

Now may our coming please thee. In the search 

Of liberty he journeys : that how dear, 

They know who for her sake have life refused. 

Thou knowest, to whom death for her was sweet 

In Utica, where thou didst leave those weeds, 

That in the last great day will shine so bright. 

For us the eternal edicts are unmoved : 

He breathes, and I of Minos am not bound 1 , 

Abiding in that circle, where the eyes 

Of thy chaste Marcia 2 beam, who still in look 

Prays thee, O hallow'd spirit ! to own her thine. 

Then by her love we implore thee, let us pass 

So Ariosto, 0. F. Canto xxxiv. st. 59. 

Clie non han visto ancor l'ultima sera. 
'And Filicaja, Canto ix. Al Sonno. 

L'ultima sera. 
And Mr. Mathias, Canzone a Guglielmo Roscoe premessa alia Storia della 
Poesia Italiana, p. 13. 

Di morte non year a l'ultima sera. 

1 Of Minos am not bound. ,] See Hell, v. 4. 

2 Marcia.] Da foedera prisci 

Illibata tori : da tantum nomen inane 
Connubii : liceat tumulo scripsisse, Catonis 
Martia. Lucan, Phars. lib. ii. 344. 

Our author's habit of putting an allegorical interpretation on every thing, 
a habit which appears to have descended to that age from certain fathers of 
the church, is no where more apparent than in his explanation of this pas- 
sage. See Convito, p. 211. " Marzia fu vergine, &c." "Marcia was a 
virgin, and in that state she signifies childhood ; then she came to Cato, and 
in that state she represents youth ; she then bare children, by whom are 
represented the virtues that we have said belong to that age." Dante would 
surely have done well to remember his own rule laid down in the De Mon- 
arch, lib. iii. " Advertendum, &c." " Concerning the mystical sense it 
must be observed that we may err in two ways, either by seeing it where it 
is not, or by taking it otherwise than it ought to be taken." 



82—115. PURGATORY, Canto I. (181) 

Through thy seven regions 1 ; for which, best thanks 

I for thy favour will to her return, 

If mention there below thou not disdain." 

" Marcia so pleasing in my sight was found," 
He then to him rejoin 'd, "while I was there, 
That all she ask'd me I was fain to grant. 
Now that beyond the accursed stream she dwells, 
She may no longer move me, by that law 2 , 
Which was ordain'd me, when I issued thence. 
Not so, if Dame from heaven, as thou sayst, 
Moves and directs thee ; then no flattery needs. 
Enough for me that in her name thou ask. 
Go therefore now : and with a slender reed 3 
See that thou duly gird him, and his face 
Lave, till all sordid stain thou wipe from thence. 
For not with eye, by any cloud obscured, 
Would it be seemly before him to come, 
Who stands the foremost minister in heaven. 
This islet all around, there far beneath, 
Where the wave beats it, on the oozy bed 
Produces store of reeds. No other plant, 
Cover'd with leaves, or harden' d in its stalk, 
There lives, not bending to the water's sway. 
After, this way return not ; but the sun 
Will show you, that now rises, where to take 4 
The mountain in its easiest ascent." 

He disappear'd ; and I myself upraised 
Speechless, and to my guide retiring close, 
Toward him turn'd mine eyes. He thus began : 
" My son ! observant thou my steps pursue. 
We must retreat to rereward ; for that way 
The champain to its low extreme declines." 

The dawn had chased the matin hour of prime, 
Which fled before it, so that from afar 



1 Through thy seven regions.'] The seven rounds of Purgatory, in which 
the seven capital sins are punished. 2 By that law.] When he was de- 
livered by Christ from limbo, a change of affections accompanied his change 
of place. 3 A slender reed.] The reed is here supposed, with sufficient 
probability, to be meant for a type of simplicity and patience. 4 Where 
to take.] "Prendere il monte," a reading which Lombard! claims for his 
favourite Nidobeatina edition, is also found in Landino's of 1484. 






(182) THE VISION. 116—136. 

I spied the trembling of the ocean stream 1 . 

We traversed the deserted plain, as one 
Who, wander "d from his track, thinks every step 
Trodden in vain till he regain the path. 

When we had come, where vet the tender dew 
Strove with the sun, and in a place where fresh 
The wind breathed o'er it, while it slowly dried ; 
Both hands extended on the watery grass 
My master placed, in graceful act and kind. 
Whence I of his intent before apprized, 
Stretch'd out to him my cheeks suffused with tears. 
There to my visage he anew restored 
That hue which the dun shades of hell conceal' d. 

Then on the solitary shore arrived, 
That never sailing on its waters saw 
Man that could after measure back his course, 
He girt me in such manner as had pleased 
Him who instructed ; and O strange to tell ! 
As he selected every humble plant, 
Wherever one was pluck'd another 2 there 
Resembling, straightway in its place arose. 



canto n. 



ARGUMENT. 

They behold a vessel under conduct of an angel, coming over the waves with 
spirits to Purgatory, among whom, when the passengers have landed, 
Dante recognises his friend Casella : but, while they are entertained by 
him with a song, they hear Cato exclaiming against their negligent loiter- 
ing, and at that rebuke hasten forwards to the mountain. 

Now had the sun 3 to that horizon reach'd, 
That covers, with the most exalted point 

1 I spied the trembling of the ocean stream.} 

Conobbi il tremolar della marina. 
So Trissino in the Sofonisba. 

E resta in tremolar l'onda marina. 
And Fortiguerra, Ricciardetto, Canto ix. st. 17. 

yisto il tremolar della marina. 

2 Another.'] From Yirg. JEn. lib. \i. 143. Primo avuiso non deficit alter. 

3 Now had the sun.] "Dante was now antipodal to Jerusalem; so that 
while the sun was setting with respect to that place, which he supposes to be 
the middle of the inhabited earth, to him it was rising. See Routh's Reli- 



3—30. PURGATORY, Canto II. (183) 

Of its meridian circle, Salem's walls ; 
And night, that opposite to him her orb 
Rounds, from the stream of Ganges issued forth, 
Holding the scales \ that from her hands are dropt 
When she reigns highest 2 : so that where I was, 
Aurora's white and vermeil-tinctured cheek 
To orange turn'd 3 as she in age increased. 

Meanwhile we linger 'd by the water's brink, 
Like men 4 , who, musing on their road, in thought 
Journey, while motionless the body rests. 
When lo ! as, near upon the hour of dawn, 
Through the thick vapours 5 Mars with fiery beam 
Glares down in west, over the ocean floor ; 
So seem'd, what once again I hope to view, 
A light, so swiftly coming through the sea, 
No winged course might equal its career. 
From which when for a space I had withdrawn 
Mine eyes, to make inquiry of my guide, 
Again I look'd, and saw it grown in size 
And brightness : then on either side appear' d 
Something, but what I knew not, of bright hue, 
And by degrees from underneath it came 
Another. My preceptor silent yet 
Stood, while the brightness, that we first discern'd, 
Open'cl the form of wings : then when he knew 
The pilot, cried aloud, " Down, down ; bend low 
Thy knees ; behold God's angel : fold thy hands : 
Now shalt thou see true ministers indeed. 

quiae Sacra?, torn. iii. p. 256. So Fazio degli TJberti, Dittamondo, lib. vi. 
cap. yi. 

questo monte e quello 

Ch' in niezzo il mondo apunto si diyisa. 
1 The scales.] The constellation Libra. 2 When she reigns highest.] 

" Quando soverchia" is (according to Venturi, whom I have followed) 
11 when the autumnal equinox is passed." Lombardi supposes it to mean 
11 when the nights begin to increase, that is, after the summer solstice." 

3 To orange 'turn 'e?.] " L'aurora gia divermiglia cominciava appressandosi 
il sole a diyenir rancia." Boccaccio, Decani. G. iii. at the beginning. See 
notes to Hell, xxiii. 101. 

4 Like men.~] Che va col cuore e col corpo dimora. 
So Erezzi. E nientre il corpo posa, col cor Tarca. 

II Quadrir. lib. iv. cap. 8. 

5 Thrcnigh the thick vapours.] So in the Convito, p. 72. " Esso pare, 
&c." " He (Mars) appears more or less inflamed with heat, according to 
the thickness or rarity of the vapours that follow him." 



(184) THE VISION. 31—56. 

Lo ! how all human means lie sets at nought • 

So that nor oar he needs, nor other sail 

Except his wings l , between such distant shores. 

Lo ! how straight up to heaven he holds them rear'd, 

TVinnowing the air 2 with those eternal plumes, 

That not like mortal hairs fall off or change. " 

As more and more toward us came, more bright 
Appear'd the bird of God, nor could the eye . 
Endure his splendour near : I mine bent down. 
He drove ashore in a small bark so swift 
And light, that in its course no wave it drank. 
The heavenly steersman at the prow was seen, 
Visibly written Blessed in his looks. 
"Within, a hundred spirits and more there sat. 

" In Exitu 3 Israel de Egypto," 
All with one voice together sang, with what 
In the remainder of that hymn is writ. 
Then soon as with the sign of holy cross 
He bless'd them, they at once leap'd out on land : 
He, swiftly as he came, return'd. The crew, 
There left, appear'd astounded with the place, 
Gazing around, as one who sees new sights. 

From every side the sun darted his beams, 
And with his arrowy radiance 4 from mid heaven 
Had chased the Capricorn, when that strange tribe, 
Lifting their eyes toward us : " If ye know, 

1 Except his icings.'] Hence Milton: 

Who after came from earth, sailing arrived 

Wafted by angels. . P. L. b. iii. ver. 521. 

2 Winnowing the air.] 

Trattando l'aere con l'eterne penne. 
So Filicaja, canz. viii. st. 11. Ma trattar l'aere coll' eteme piume. 

3 In Exitu.] " When Israel came out of Egypt." Ps. cxiv. 

4 With his arrowy radiance.] So Milton: 

and now went forth the morn : 

from before her vanish' d night, 

Shot through with orient beams. P. L. b. vi. ver. 15. 

This has been regarded by some critics as a conceit, into which Milton was 
betrayed by the Italian poets ; but it is in truth authorised by one of the 
correctest of the Grecians. 

"Ov alo\a vv% kvapC^oiiiva 

TLKTEL, KaTEVVaX^EL T£, <fi\oy CQo JXIVOV 

"AXlov. Sophocles, Trachin. 96. 

Ecco dinanzi a te fugge repente 
Saettata la notte. Sfarini, Son. a! Sip. Cinthio Aldobrandino. 



57—87. PURGATORY, Canto II. (185) 

Declare what path will lead us to the mount." 

Them Virgil answer'd : " Ye suppose, perchance, 
Us well acquainted with this place : but here, 
We, as yourselves, are strangers. Not long erst 
We came, before you but a little space, 
By other road so rough and hard, that now 
The ascent will seem to us as play." The spirits, 
Who from my breathing had perceived I lived, 
Grew pale with wonder. As the multitude 
Flock round a herald sent with olive branch, 
To hear what news he brings, and in their haste 
Tread one another down ; e'en so at sight 
Of me those happy spirits were fix'd, each one 
Forgetful of its errand to depart 
Where, cleansed from sin, it might be made all fair. 

Then one I saw darting before the rest 
With such fond ardour to embrace me, I 
To do the like was moved. O shadows vain ! 
Except in outward semblance : thrice my hands l 
I clasp'd behind it, they as oft return'd 
Empty into my breast again. Surprise 
I need must think was painted in my looks, 
For that the shadow smiled and backward drew. 
To follow it I hasten'd, but with voice 
Of sweetness it enjoin'd me to desist. 
Then who it was I knew, and pray'd of it, 
To talk with me it would a little pause. 
It answer'd : " Thee as in my mortal frame 
I loved, so loosed from it I love thee still, 
And therefore pause : but why walkest thou here ? " 
" Not without purpose once more to return, 



Thrice my hands. \ 
ibi 



Ter conatus ibi collo dare brachia circum, 

Ter frustra comprensa manus effugit imago ; 

Par leYibus ventis yolucrique simiflima somno. 

Virg. JEn. ii. 794. 
Compare Homer, Od. xi. 205. 

The incident in the text is pleasantly alluded to in that delightful book, 
the Capricci del Botaio of Gelli, (Opere. Milan. 1805. v. ii. p. 26.) of which 
there is an English translation entitled " The Fearfull Fancies of the Floren- 
tine Cooper. Written in Toscane, by John Baptist Gelli, one of the free 
studie of Florence. And for recreation translated into English by "W. 
Barker." 8 Q . Lond. 1599. 



(186) THE VISION. B8— 107. 

Thou find'st me, my Casella 1 . where I am 2 . 
Journeying this way :" I said : "but how of thee 
Hath so much time been lost 3 ?" He answer'd straight : 

;i Xo outrage hath been done to me. if he 4 . 
TTho when and whom he chooses takes, hath oft 
Denied me passage here : since of just will 
His will he makes. These three months past 5 indeed, 
He, whoso chose to enter, with free leave 
Hath taken ; whence I wandering by the shore 6 
TThere Tiber's wave grows salt, of him gain'd kind 
Admittance, at that river's mouth, toward which 
His wings are pointed : for there always throng 
All such as not to Acheron descend." 

Then I : " If new law taketh not from thee 
Memory or custom of love-tuned sobs. 
That whilom all my cares had power to 'swage : 
Please thee therewith a little to console 
My spirit, that encumber'd with its frame, 
Traveling so far, of pain is overcome.*' 

" Love, that discourses in my thoughts ",'" he then 

1 My Casella.'] A Florentine, celebrated for his skill in music, " in wh )se 

company,'*' says Landino, " Dante often recreated his spirits, wearied by se- 
verer studies." See Dr. Burney's History of Music, vol. ii. cap. iv. p. 322. 
Milton has a fine allusion to this meeting in his sonnet to Henry Lawes. 

Dante shall give fame leave to set thee higher 

Than his Casella. whom he wooed to sing, 

Met in the milder shades of Purgatory. 
8 Wliere lam.] " La dove io son. 5 '* Lombardi understands this dif- 
ferently: ;i Not without purpose to return again to the earth, where I am ; 
that is, where I usually dwell." a Hath so much time been lost.] There 
is some uncertainty in this passage. If we read 

Ma a te corn' era tanta terra tolta \ 
with the Xidobeatina and Aldine editions, and many MSS., it signifies 
" why art thou deprived of so desirable a region as that of Purgatory ? why 
dost thou not hasten to be cleansed of thy sirls ? " If with the Academicians 
della Crusca, we read, 

Diss 'io. ma a te come tant' ora e tolta ? 
which, is not destitute of authority to support it. and which has the advan- 
tage over the other, as it marks Dante's speech from CaseHa's, then it must 
mean as I have translated it. ,; why hast thou lost so much time in arriving 
here ? " Lombardi. who is for the former reading, supposes Casella to be 
just dead ; those, who prefer the latter, suppose him to have been dead some 
years, but now only just arrived. 4 He.] The conducting angel. 

b These three months past.] Since the time of the Jubilee, during which 
all spirits not condemned to eternal punishment were supposed to pass over 
to Purgatory as soon as they pleased. 6 The shore.] Ostia. 
7 " Love, that discourses in my thoughts**] 

" Amor che nella mente mi ragiona." 



108—126. PURGATORY, Canto II. (187) 

Began in such soft accents, that within 
The sweetness thrills me yet. My gentle guide, 
And all who came with him, so well were pleased, 
That seem'd nought else might in their thoughts have 

Fast fix'd in mute attention to his notes [room. 

We stood, when lo ! that old man venerable 
Exclaiming, " How is this, ye tardy spirits ? 
What negligence detains you loitering here ? 
Run to the mountain to cast off those scales, 
That from your eyes the sight of God conceal." 

As a wild flock of pigeons, to their food 
Collected, blade or tares, without their pride 
Accustom'd, and in still and quiet sort, 
If aught alarm them, suddenly desert 
Their meal, assail'd by more important care ; 
So I that new-come troop beheld, the song 
Deserting, hasten to the mountain's side, 
As one 1 who goes, yet, where he tends, knows not. 

Nor with less hurried step did we depart. 



CANTO III. 



ARGUMENT. 

Our Poet, perceiving no shadow except that cast by his own body, is fearful 
that Virgil has deserted him ; but he is freed from that error, and both 
arrive together at the foot of the mountain : on finding it too steep to 
climb, they inquire the way from a troop of spirits that are coming to- 
wards them, and are by them shown winch is the easiest ascent. Man- 
fredi, king of Naples, who is one of these spirits, bids Dante inform, his 
daughter Costanza, queen of Arragon, of the manner in which he had died. 

Them sudden flight had scattered o'er the plain, 
Turn'd towards the mountain, whither reason's voice 
Drives us : I, to my faithful company 
Adhering, left it not. For how, of him 
Deprived, might I have sped ? or who, beside, 
Would o'er the mountainous tract have led my steps ? 
He, with the bitter pang of self-remorse, 

The first verse of a canzone in the Convito of Dante, which he again cites 
in his treatise de Yulg. Eloq. lib. ii. cap. 6. 

1 As one.'] Com' nom, che va, ne sa dove riesca. 
So Prezzi : Come chi va, ne sa dove camina. II Quadrir. lib. i. cap. 3. 



(188) THE VISION. 8—35. 

Seem'd smitten. O clear conscience, and upright ! 
How doth a little failing wound thee sore 1 . 

Soon as his feet desisted (slackening pace) 
From haste, that mars all decency of act 2 , 
My mind, that in itself before was wrapt, 
Its thought expanded, as with joy restored; 
And full against the steep ascent I set 
My face, where highest 3 to heaven its top o'erflows. 

The sun, that flared behind, with ruddy beam 
Before my form was broken ; for in me 
His rays resistance met. I turn'd aside 
"With fear of being left, when I beheld 
Only before myself the ground obscured. 
When thus my solace, turning him around, 
Bespake me kindly : " Why distrustest thou ? 
Believest not I am with thee, thy sure guide ? 
It now is evening there, where buried lies 
The body in which I cast a shade, removed 
To Naples 4 from Brundusium's wall. Nor thou 
Marvel, if before me no shadow fall, 
More than that in the skyey element 
One ray obstructs not other. To endure 
Torments of heat and cold extreme, like frames 
That virtue hath disposed, which, how it works, 
Wills not to us should be reveal' d. Insane, 
Who hopes our reason may that space explore, 
Which holds three persons in one substance knit. 
Seek not the wherefore, race of human kind ; 

1 How doth a little failing wound thee sore.} 

Ch' era al cor picciol fallo amaro morso. Tasso, G. L. Canto x. st. 59. 

2 Haste, that mars all decency of act. ~) Aristotle in his Physiog. c. iii. 
reckons it among the a.vai&ov<s o-tj/Aela, " the signs of an impudent man," 
that he is kv Tot's KivnoscrLv o£vs, " quick in his motions." Compare So- 
phocles, Electra, 878. 

To koc/ullov /jLzdeio'a. 
Joy, my dear sister, wings my quick return, 
And with more speed than decency allows. Potter. 

3 Where highest.] Lombardi proposes, with some hesitation, a different 
meaning from that which has hitherto been affixed to the words, 

Che 'nverso '1 ciel pid alto si dislaga ; 
and would construe them, " that raises itself higher than every other moun- 
tain above the sea:" " sopra l'allagamento delle acque del mare." The 
conjecture is at least ingenious, and has obtained new force by the arguments 
of Monti in his Proposta. * To Naples. ] Virgil died at Brundusium, 

from whence his body is said to have been removed to Naples. 



36—63. PURGATORY, Canto III. (189) 

Could ye have seen the whole, no need had been 

For Mary to bring forth. Moreover, ye 

Have seen such men desiring fruitlessly l ; 

To whose desires, repose would have been given, 

That now but serve them for eternal grief. 

I speak of Plato, and the Stagirite, 

And others many more." And then he bent 

Downwards his forehead, and in troubled mood 2 

Broke off his speech. Meanwhile we had arrived 

Far as the mountain's foot, and there the rock 

Found of so steep ascent, that nimblest steps 

To climb it had been vain. The most remote, 

Most wild, untrodden path, in all the tract 

'Twixt Lerice and Turbia 3 , were to this 

A ladder easy and open of access. 

" Who knows on which hand now the steep declines ? " 
My master said, and paused ; " so that he may 
Ascend, who journeys without aid of wing ? " 
And while, with looks directed to the ground, 
The meaning of the pathway 4 he explored, 
And I gazed upward round the stony height ; 
On the left hand appear'd to us a troop 
Of spirits, that toward us moved their steps ; 
Yet moving seem'd not, they so slow approach'd. 

I thus my guide address'd : " Upraise thine eyes : 
Lo ! that way some, of whom thou mayst obtain 
Counsel, if of thyself thou find'st it not." 

Straightway he look'd, and with free speech replied : 

1 Desiring fruitlessly.'] See Hell, Canto iv. 39. 2 In troubled mood.] 
Because he himself (Virgil) was amongst the number of spirits, who thus 
desired without hope. 3 'Tivixt Lerice and Turbia.] At that time the 
two extremities of the Genoese republic ; the former on the east, the latter 
on the west. A very ingenious writer has had occasion, for a different pur- 
pose, to mention one of these places as remarkably secluded by its moun- 
tainous situation. " On an eminence among the mountains, between the 
two little cities, Nice and Monaco, is the Tillage of Torbia, a name formed 
from the Greek TpoVcua." Mitford on the Harmony of Language, sect, 
xv. p. 351. 2d edit. 

4 The meaning of the pathway.] Lombardi reads, 

tenea '1 viso basso, 

Esaminando del cammin la mente, 
and explains it, " he bent down his face, his mind being occupied with con- 
sidering their way to ascend the mountain." I doubt much whether the 
words can bear that construction. 



(190) THE VISION. 64—97. 

" Let us tend thither : they but softly come. 
• And thou be firm in hope, my son beloved." 

Now was that crowd from us distant as far, 
(When we some thousand steps l , I say, had past,) 
As at a throw the nervous arm could fling ; 
When all drew backward on the massy crags 
Of the steep bank, and firmly stood unmoved, 
As one, who walks in doubt, might stand to look. 

" O spirits perfect ! O already chosen ! " 
Virgil to them began : " by that blest peace, 
Which, as I deem, is for you all prepared, 
Instruct us where the mountain low declines, 
So that attempt to mount it be not vain. 
For who knows most, him loss of time most grieves." 

As sheep 2 , that step from forth their fold, by one, 
Or pairs, or three at once ; meanwhile the rest 
Stand fearfully, bending the eye and nose 
To ground, and what the foremost does, that do 
The others, gathering round her if she stops, 
Simple and quiet, nor the cause discern ; 
So saw I moving to advance the first, 
Who of that fortunate crew were at the head, 
Of modest mien, and graceful in their gait. 
When they before me had beheld the light 
From my right side fall broken on the ground, 
So that the shadow reach'd the cave ; they stopp'd, 
And somewhat back retired : the same did all 
Who follow'd, though unweeting of the cause. 

" Unask'd of you, yet freely I confess, 
This is a human body which ye see. 
That the sun's light is broken on the ground, 
Marvel not : but believe, that not without 
Virtue derived from Heaven, we to climb 
Over this wall aspire." So them bespake 

1 Wheti we some thousand steps.] Mr. Carlyle puts a query to my former 
translation of this passage. It was certainly erroneous. 2 As sheep.] The 
imitative nature of these animals supplies our Poet with another comparison, 
in his Conyito, p. 34. " Questi sono da chiamare pecore, &c." " These may 
be called flocks of sheep and not men ; for if one sheep should throw him- 
self down a precipice of a thousand feet, all the rest would follow ; and if 
one for any cause in passing a road should leap, all the rest would do the 
same, though they saw nothing to leap oyer." 



98—112. PURGATORY, Canto III. (191) 

My master ; and that virtuous tribe rejoin'd: 
" Turn, and before you there the entrance lies ;" 
Making a signal to us with bent hands. 

Then of them one began. " Whoe'er thou art, 
Who journey'st thus this way, thy visage turn ; 
Think if me elsewhere thou hast ever seen." 

I towards him turn'd, and with fix'd eye beheld. 
Comely and fair, and gentle of aspect 
He seem'd, but on one brow a gash was mark'd. 

When humbly I disclaim'd to have beheld 
Him ever : " Now behold ! " he said, and show'd 
High on his breast a wound : then smiling spake. 

" I am Manfredi l , grandson to the Queen 
Costanza 2 : whence I pray thee, when return'd, 
To my fair daughter 3 go, the parent glad 

1 Manfredi.'] King of Naples and Sicily, and the natural son of Frederick 
II. He was lively and agreeable in his manners, and delighted in poetry, 
music, and dancing. But he was luxurious and ambitious, void of religion, 
and in his philosophy an Epicurean. See G. Villani, lib. vi. cap. xlvii. and 
Mr. Mathias's Tiraboschi, vol. i. p. 99. He fell in the battle with Charles 
of Anjou in 1265, alluded to in Canto xxviii. of Hell, Ter. 13. or rather in 
that which ensued in the course of a few days at Benevento. But the suc- 
cesses of Charles were so rapidly followed up, that our author, exact as he 
generally is, might not have thought it necessary to distingiiish them in 
point of time ; for this seems the best method of reconciling some little ap- 
parent inconsistency between him and the annalist. " Dying excommuni- 
cated, King Charles did not allow of his being buried in sacred ground, but 
he was interred near the bridge of Benevento ; and on his grave there was 
cast a stone by every one of the army, whence there was formed a great 
mound of stones. But some have said, that afterwards, by command of the 
Pope, the Bishop of Cosenza took up his body and sent it out of the king- 
dom, because it was the land of the church ; and that it was buried by the 
river Verde, on the borders of the kingdom and of Campagna. This, how- 
ever, we do not affirm." G. Yillani, Hist. lib. vii. cap. ix. Manfredi and 
his father are spoken of by our Poet in his De Vulg. Eloq. lib. i. cap. 12. 
with singular commendation. " Siquidem illustres, &c." " Those illus- 
trious worthies, Frederick the Emperor, and his well-born son Manfredi, 
manifested their nobility and uprightness of form, as long as fortune re- 
mained, by following pursuits worthy of men, and disdained those which are 
suited only to brutes. Such, therefore, as were of a lofty spirit, and graced 
with natural endowments, endeavoured to walk in the track which the ma- 
jesty of such great princes had marked out for them : so that whatever was 
in their time attempted by eminent Italians, first made its appearance in 
the court of crowned sovereigns ; and because Sicily was a royal throne, it 
came to pass that whatever was produced in the vernacular tongue by our 
predecessors was called Sicilian ; which neither we nor our posterity shall be 
able to change." * Costa?iza.~\ See Paradise, Canto iii. 121. 3 My 
fair daughter.] Costamza, the daughter of Manfredi, and wife of Peter III. 
King of Arragon, by whom she was mother to Frederick, King of Sicily, 



(192) 



THE VISION. 



113—141, 



Of Aragonia and Sicilians pride : 

And of the truth inform her. if of me 

Aught else be told. TThen by two mortal blow? 

My frame was shattered, I betook myself 

TTeeping to him. who of free will forgives. 

My sins were horrible : but so wide arms 

Hath goodness infinite, that it receive? 

All who turn to it. Had this text divine 

Been of Cosenza's shepherd better scann'd. 

TTho then by Clement 1 on my hunt was set. 

Yet at the bridge's head mv bones had lain. 

Near Benevento. by the heavy mole 

Protected ; but the rain now drenches them. 

And the wind drives, out of the kingdom's bounds, 

Far as the stream of Verde 2 . where, with lights 

Extinguish'*!, he removed them from their bed. 

Yet by their curse we are not so destroy'd. 

But that the eternal love may turn, while hope 3 

Retains her verdant blossom. True it is. 

That such one as in contumacy dies 

Against the holy church, though he repent. 

Must wander thirty-fold for all the time 

In his presumption past : if such decree 

Be not by prayers of good men shorter made. 

Look therefore if thou canst advance my bliss ; 

Revealing to my good Costanza. h 

Thou hast beheld me, and beside, the terms 

Laid on me of that interdict ; for here 

By means of those below much profit comes." 



and James. King of Arragon. With the latter of these she was at Ptoine 
1296. See G. Villain, lib. riii. cap. xviii. and notes t :< Canto vii. l C'.i ■ r :. " 
Pope Clement IV. 2 The stream of Verde. ] A river near Ascoli. that 
falls into the Tronto. The " extinguished fights* 1 frnned part of the cere- 
mony at the interment of one excommunicated. 
Passa la mora di Manfre, cui lava 

II Verde. 

Uoe?-ti. Ditiamondo, lib. i: corrected by Perticari. 

s Hope."] Mentre che la speranza ha flor del w& le 

^sso, G. L. Canto xix. st. 53. infin che verde e flor di speme. 



1—9. PURGATORY, Canto IV. (193) 

CANTO IV. 



ARGUMENT. 

Dante and Virgil ascend the mountain of Purgatory, by a steep and narrow 
path pent in on each side by rock, till they reach a part of it that opens 
into a ledge or cornice. There seating themselves, and turning to the east, 
Dante wonders at seeing the sun on their left, the cause of which is ex- 
plained to him by Virgil ; and while they continue their discourse, a voice 
addresses them, at which they turn, and find several spirits behind the 
rock, and amongst the rest one named Belaequa, who had been known to 
our Poet on earth, and who tells that he is doomed to linger there on ac- 
count of his having delayed his repentance to the last. 

TVhen ! by sensations of delight or pain, 
That any of our faculties hath seized, 
Entire the soul collects herself, it seems 
She is intent upon that power alone ; 
And thus the error is disproved, which holds 
The soul not singly lighted in the breast. 
And therefore whenas aught is heard or seen, 
That firmly keeps the soul toward it turn'd, 
Time passes, and a man perceives it not. 

1 When.] It must be owned the beginning of this Canto is somewhat 
obscure. Vellutello refers, for an elucidation of it, to the reasoning of Sta- 
tius in the twenty-fifth Canto. Perhaps some illustration may be derived 
from the following passage in the Summa Theologian of Thomas Aquinas. 
" Some say that in addition to the vegetable soul,Vhich was present from 
the first, there supervenes another soul, which is the sensitive, and again, 
in addition to that, another, which is the intellective. And so there are in 
man three souls, one of which exists potentially with regard to another : but 
this has been already disproved. And accordingly others say that that same 
soul, which at first was merely vegetative, is, through action of the seminal 
virtue, carried forward till it reaches to that point, in which, being still the 
same, it nevertheless becomes sensitive ; and at length the same by an ul- 
terior progression is led on till it becomes intellective ; not, indeed, through 
the seminal virtue acting in it, but by virtue of a superior agent, that is, 
God, enlightening it from without." " (This opinion he next proceeds to 
confute.) "Dieunt ergo quidam quod supra aniniam vegetabilem, quae 
primo inerat, supervenit alia anima, quae est sensitiva, supra illam iterum 
alia quae est intellectiva. Et sic sunt in homine tres anima?, quarum una 
est in potentia ad aliani, quod supra improbatum est. Et ideo alii dieunt, 
quod ilia eadem anima, quae primo fait vegetativa tantum, pGstmodum per 
actionem virtutis, quae est in semine, perducitur ad hoc, ut ipsa eadem fiat 
sensitiva ; et tandem ipsa eadem perducitur ad hoc, ut ipsa eadem fiat in- 
tellectiva, non quidem per virtutem activam seminis, sed per vLrtutem supe- 
rioris agentis, scilicet Dei deforis illustrantis." Thorn. Aqxdn. Opera, Edit. 
Venet. 1595, torn. x. Summa Tlxeolog. Vma Pars. Qutestio cxviii. Art. ii. 
See also Lettere di Fra Guittone, 4°. Roma, 1745. p. 15 ; and Routh's note 
on the Gorgias of Plato, p. 451. 

O 



(194) THE VISION. 10—43. 

For that, whereby we hearken, is one power ; 
Another that, which the whole spirit hath : 
This is as it were bound, while that is free. 

This found I true by proof, hearing that spirit, 
And wondering ; for full fifty steps l aloft 
The sun had measured, unobserved of me, 
When we arrived where all with one accord 
The spirits shouted, " Here is what ye ask." 

A larger aperture oft-times is stopt, 
With forked stake of thorn by villager, 
When the ripe grape imbrowns, than was the path, 
By which my guide, and I behind him close, 
Ascended solitary, when that troop 
Departing left us. On Sanleo's 2 road 
Who journeys, or to Noli 3 low descends. 
Or mounts Bismantua's 4 height, must use his feet; 
But here a man had need to fly, I mean 
With the swift wing 5 and plumes of high desire, 
Conducted by his aid, who gave me hope, 
And with light furnish'd to direct my way. 

We through the broken rock ascended, close 
Pent on each side, while underneath the ground 
Ask'd help of hands and feet. When we arrived 
Near on the highest ridge of the steep bank, 
Where the plain level open'd, I exclaim'd, 
" O Master ! say, which way can we proceed," 

He answer' d, " Let no step of thine recede. 
Behind me gain the mountain, till to us 
Some practised guide appear." That eminence 
Was lofty, that no eye might reach its point ; 
And the side proudly rising, more than line 6 
From the mid quadrant to the centre drawn. 
I, wearied, thus began : " Parent beloved ! 
Turn and behold how I remain alone, 

1 Full fifty steps.] Three hours and twenty minutes, fifteen degrees being 
reckoned to an hour. 2 Sanleo.] A fortress on the summit of Montefeltro. 
The situation is described by Troya, Veltro Allegorico, p. 11. It is a con- 
spicuous object to travelers along the cornice on the riviera di Genoa. 

3 Noli.'] In the Genoese territory, between Finale and Savona. 

4 Bismantua.] A steep mountain in the territory of Reggio. 

5 With the swift wing .] Compare Paradise, Canto xxxiii. 17. 6 More 
than line "* It was much nearer to being perpendicular than horizontal. 



44—70. PURGATORY, Canto IV. (195) 

If thou stay not." — " My son ! " be straight replied, 
" Thus far put forth thy strength ;" and to a track 
Pointed, that, on this side projecting, round 
Circles the hill. His words so spurr'd me on, 
That I, behind him, clambering, forced myself, 
Till my feet press'd the circuit plain beneath. 
There both together seated, turn'd we round 
To eastward, whence was our ascent : and oft 
Many beside have with delight look'd back. 

First on the nether shores I turn'd mine eyes, 
Then raised them to the sun, and wondering mark'd 
That from the left l it smote us. Soon perceived 
That poet sage, how at the car of light 
Amazed 2 I stood, where 'twixt us and the north 
Its course it enter'd. Whence he thus to me : 
"Were Leda's offspring 3 now in company 
Of that broad mirror, that high up and low 
Imparts his light beneath, thou mightst behold 
The ruddy Zodiac nearer to the Bears 
Wheel, if its ancient course it not forsook. 
How that may be, if thou wouldst think ; within 
Pondering, imagine Sion with this mount 
Placed on the earth, so that to both be one 
Horizon, and two hemispheres apart, 
Where lies the path 4 that Phaeton ill knew 
To guide his erring chariot : thou wilt see"' 
How of necessity by this, on one, 

1 From the left.] Vellutello observes an imitation of Lucan in this passage : 

Ignotum vobis, Arabes, venistis in orbem, 

Umbras mirati nemorum non ire sinistras. Phars. lib. iii. 248. 

2 Amazed.] He wonders that being turned to the east he should see the 
sun on his left, since in all the regions on this side of the tropic of Cancer it 
is seen on the right of one who turns his face towards the east ; not recol- 
lecting that he was now antipodal to Europe, from whence he had seen the 
sun taking an opposite course. 3 Were Leda's offspring.] " As the con- 
stellation of the Gemini is nearer the Bears than Aries is, it is certain that 
if the sun, instead of being in Aries, had been in Gemini, both the sun and 
that portion of the Zodiac made l ruddy ' by the sun, would have been seen 
to ' wheel nearer to the Bears.' By the ' ruddy Zodiac ' must necessarily be 
understood that portion of the Zodiac affected or made red by the sun ; for 
the whole of the Zodiac never changes, nor appears to change, with respect 
to the remainder of the heavens." — Lombardi. 4 The path.] The 
ecliptic. 5 Thou wilt see.] " If you consider that this mountain of 
Purgatory, and that of Sion, are antipodal to each other, you will perceive 
that the sun must rise on opposite sides of the respective eminences." 

o 2 



(196) THE VISION. 71—106. 

He passes, while by that on the other side ; 
If with that clear view thine intellect attend." 

" Of truth, kind teacher ! " I exclaini'd, " so clear 
Aught saw I never, as I now discern, 
Where seem'd my ken to fail, that the mid orb * 
Of the supernal motion (which in terms 
Of art is caird the Equator, and remains 
Still 'twixt the sun and winter) for the cause 
Thou hast assign'd, from hence toward the north 
Departs, when those, who in the Hebrew land 
Were dwellers, saw it towards the warmer part. 
But if it please thee, I would gladly know, 
How far we have to journey : for the hill 
Mounts higher, than this sight of mine can mount.* 

He thus to me : " Such is this steep ascent, 
That it is ever difficult at first, 
But more a man proceeds, less evil grows 2 . 
When pleasant it shall seem to thee, so much 
That upward going shall be easy to thee 
As in a vessel to go down the tide, 
Then of this path thou wilt have reach'd the end. 
There hope to rest thee from thy toil. No more 
I answer, and thus far for certain know." 
As he his words had spoken, near to us 
A voice there sounded : " Yet ye first perchance 
May to repose you by constraint be led." 
At sound thereof each turn'd ; and on the left 
A huge stone we beheld, of which nor I 
Nor he before was ware. Thither we drew ; 
And there were some, who in the shady place 
Behind the rock were standing, as a man 
Through idleness might stand. Among them one, 
Who seem'd to be much wearied, sat him down, 
And with his arms did fold his knees about, 
Holding his face between them downward bent. 

" Sweet Sir ! " I cried, " behold that man who shows 

1 That the mid orb.] " That the equator (which is always situated be- 
tween that part where, when the sun ft, he causes summer, and the other 
wliere his absence produces winter) recedes from this mountain towards the 
north, at the time when the Jews inhabiting Mount Sion saw it depart to- 
wards the south." — Lombardi. 2 But more a man proceeds, less evil 
grows.] Because in ascending he gets rid of the weight of his sins. 



107—135. PURGATORY, Canto IV. .(197) 

Himself more idle than if laziness 
Were sister to him." Straight he turn'd to us, 
And, o'er the thigh lifting his face, observed, 
Then in these accents spake : " Up then, proceed, 
Thou valiant one." Straight who it was I knew ; 
Nor could the pain I felt (for want of breath 
Still somewhat urged me) hinder my approach. 
And when I came to him, he scarce his head 
Uplifted, saying, " Well hast thou discern' d, 
How from the left the sun his chariot leads." 

His lazy acts and broken words my lips 
To laughter somewhat moved ; when I began : 
"Belacqua 1 , now for thee I grieve no more. 
But tell, why thou art seated upright there. 
Waitest thou escort to conduct thee hence ? 
Or blame I only thine accustom'd ways?" 
Then he : " My brother ! of what use to mount, 
When, to my suffering, would not let me pass 
The bird of God 2 , who at the portal sits ? 
Behoves so long that heaven first bear me round 
Without its limits, as in life it bore ; 
Because I, to the end, repentant sighs 
Delay'd ; if prayer do not aid me first, 
That riseth up from heart which lives in grace. 
What other kind avails, not heard in heaven ? " 

Before me now the poet, up the mount 
Ascending, cried : " Haste thee : for see the sun 
Has touch 'd the point meridian ; and the night 
Now covers with her foot Marocco's shore 3 ." 

1 Belacqua.] Concerning this man, the commentators afford no inform- 
ation, except that in the margin of the Monte Casino MS. there is found 
this brief notice of him : " Iste Belacqua fuit optimus magister cithararum, 
ct leutorum, et pigrissimus homo in operibus mundi sicut in operibus ani- 
mae." " This Belacqua was an excellent master of the harp and lute, but 
very negligent in his affairs both spiritual and temporal. " Letter a cli Eus- 
tazio Dicearcheo ad Angelio Sidicino, 4to. Roma. 1801. i The bird of 
God.] Here are two other readings, " Uscier " and " Angel," " Usher" and 
" Angel" of God. 3 Marocco's shore.] Cuopre la notte gia col pie Ma- 
rocco. Hence, perhaps, Milton : 

Damasco, or Marocco, or Trebisond. P. L. b. i. 584. 
instead of Morocco, as he elsewhere calls it : 

Morocco, and Algiers, and Tremisen. P. L. b. xi. 404. 

If the vowels were to change places, the Terse would in both instances be 
spoiled. 



(198) THE VISION. 1—23. 

CAXTO V. 



ARGUMENT. 

They meet with, others, who had deferred their repentance till they were 
overtaken by a violent death, when sufficient space being allowed* them. 
they were then saved; and amongst these. G-iaeopo del Cassero, Buon- 
conte da Montefeltro, and Pia, a lady of Sienna. 

Now had I left those spirits, and pursued 

The steps of my conductor ; when behind, 

Pointing the finger at me. one exclaim' 4 d : 

" See, how it seems as if the light not shone 

From the left hand 1 of him beneath 2 , and he, 

As living, seems to be led on." Mine eyes 

I at that sound reverting, saw them gaze, 

Through wonder, first at me : and then at me 

And the light broken underneath, by turns. 

" Why are thy thoughts thus riveted," my guide 

Exclaim' d, " that thou hast slack'd thy pace ? or how 

Imports it thee, what thing is whisper 'd here ? 

Come after me, and to their babblings leave 

The crowd. Be as a tower 3 , that, firmly set, 

Shakes not its top for any blast that blows. 

He, in whose bosom thought on thought shoots out, 

Still of his aim is wide, in that the one 

Sicklies and wastes to nought the other's strength." 

What other could I answer, save " I come?" 
I said it, somewhat with that colour tinged, 
"Which oft-times pardon meriteth for man. 

Meanwhile traverse along the hill there came, 
A little way before us, some who sang 

-It seems as if the light not shone 



From the left hand.'] The sun was. therefore, on the right of our tra- 
velers. For, as before, when seated and looking to the east from whence 
they had ascended, the sun was on their left ; so now that they have 
risen and are again going forward, it must be on the opposite side of them. 

2 Of h irn beneath . ] Of Dante, who was following Virgil up the mountain, 
and therefore was the lower of the two. 

3 Be as a tower.] Sta come torre femia. 
So Berni, Orl. Inn. lib. i. canto xvi. st. -48. 

In quei due piedi sta fermo il gigante 
Com' una torre in mezzo d'uii castello. 
And Milton, P. L. b. i. -591. Stood like a tower. 



24—57. PURGATORY, Canto V. (199) 

The "Miserere" in responsive strains. 
When they perceived that through my body I 
Gave way not for the rays to pass, their song 
Straight to a long and hoarse exclaim they changed : 
And two of them, in guise of messengers, 
Ran on to meet us, and inquiring ask'd : 
" Of your condition we would gladly learn." 

To them my guide. " Ye may return, and bear 
Tidings to them who sent you, that his frame 
Is real flesh. If, as I deem, to view 
His shade they paused, enough is answer'd them : 
Him let them honour : they may prize him well." 

Xe'er saw I fiery vapours ■ with such speed 
Cut through the serene air at fall of night, 
Nor August's clouds athwart the setting sun, 
That upward these did not in shorter space 
Return ; and, there arriving, with the rest 
Wheel back on us, as with loose rein a troop. 

" Many," exclaimed the bard, " are these, who throng 
Around us : to petition thee, they come. 
Go therefore on, and listen as thou go'st." 

" O spirit ! who go'st on to blessedness, 
With the same limbs that clad thee at thy birth," 
Shouting they came : " a little rest thy step. 
Look if thou any one amongst our tribe 
Hast e'er beheld, that tidings of him there 2 
Thou mayst report. Ah, wherefore go'st thou on ? 
Ah, wherefore tarriest thou not ? We all 
By violence died, and to our latest hour 
Were sinners, but then warn'd by light from heaven ; 
So that, repenting and forgiving, we 
Did issue out of life at peace with God, 
Who, with desire to see him, fills our heart." 

Then I : " The visages of all I scan, 

1 Ne'er saw I fiery vapours.] Imitated by Tasso, G. L. canto xix. st. 62. 

Tal suol fendendo liqiiido sereno 
Stella cader della gran madre in seno. 
And by Milton, P. L. b. iv. 5oS. 

Swift as a shooting star 

In autumn thwarts the night, when vapours fired 
Impress the air. 
Compare Statius, Theb. i. 92. Ilicet igne Joyis, lapsisque citatior astris. 

2 There .] Upon the earth. 



(200) THE VISION. 58—87. 

Yet none of ye remember. But if aught 
That I can do may please you, gentle spirits ! 
Speak, and I will perform it ; by that peace, 
Which, on the steps of guide so excellent 
Following, from world to world, intent I seek." 

In answer he began : " None here distrusts 
Thy kindness, though not promised with an oath ; 
So as the will fail not for want of power. 
Whence I, who sole before the others speak, 
Entreat thee, if thou ever see that land J 
Which lies between Romagna and the realm 
Of Charles, that of thy courtesy thou pray 
Those who inhabit Fano, that for me 
Their adorations duly be put up, 
By which I may purge off my grievous sins. 
From thence I came 2 . But the deep passages, 
Whence issued out the blood 3 wherein I dwelt, 
Upon my bosom in Antenor's land 4 
Were made, where to be more secure I thought. 
The author of the deed was Este's prince, 
Who, more than right could warrant, with his wrath 
Pursued me. Had I towards Mira fled, 
When overta'en at Oriaco, still 
Might I have breathed. But to the marsh I sped ; 
And in the mire and rushes tangled there 
Fell, and beheld my life-blood float the plain." 

Then said another : " Ah ! so may the wish, 
That takes thee o'er the mountain, be fulfill'd, 
As thou shalt graciously give aid to mine. 
Of Montefeltro I 5 ; Buonconte I : 

1 That la?id.~\ The Marca d'Ancona, between Romagna and Apulia, the 
kingdom of Charles of Anjou. 2 From thence I earned Giacopo del 
Cassero, a citizen of Fano, who having spoken ill of Azzo da Este, Marquis 
of Ferrara, was by his orders put to death. Giacepo was overtaken by the 
assassins at Oriaco, a place near the Brenta, from whence if he had fled to- 
wards Mira, higher up on that river, instead of making for the marsh on 
the sea-shore, he might have escaped. 3 The blood.] Supposed to be the 
seat of life. 4 Antenor's la?id.~] The city of Padua, said to be founded by 
Antenor. This implies a reflection on the Paduans. See Hell, xxxii. 89. 
Thus G. Villani calls the Venetians "the perfidious descendants from the 
blood of Antenor, the betrayer of his country, Troy." Lib. xi. cap. lxxxix. 

5 Of Montefeltro I.] Buonconte (son of Guido da Montefeltro, whom we 
have had in the twenty-seventh Canto of Hell) fell in the battle of Campal- 
dino (1289), fighting on the side of the Aretini. In .this engagement our 



88—115. PURGATORY, Canto V. (201) 

Giovanna 1 nor none else have care for me ; 
Sorrowing with these I therefore go." I thus : 
" From Campaldino's field what force or chance 
Drew thee, that ne'er thy sepulture was known ? " 

"Oh !" answer'd he, " at Casentino's foot 
A stream there courseth, named Archiano, sprung 
In Apennine above the hermit's seat 2 . 
E'en where its name is cancel'd 3 , there came I, 
Pierced in the throat 4 , fleeing away on foot, 
And bloodying the plain. Here sight and speech 
Fail'd me ; and, finishing with Mary's name, 
I fell, and tenantless my flesh remain'd. 
I will report the truth ; which thou again 
Tell to the living. Me God's angel took 5 , 
Whilst he of hell exclaim'd : * O thou from heaven ! 
' Say wherefore hast thou robb'd me ? Thou of him 
6 The eternal portion bear'st with thee away, 
1 For one poor tear 6 that he deprives me of. 
* But of the other, other rule I make.' 

" Thou know'st how in the atmosphere collects 
That vapour dank, returning into water 
Soon as it mounts where cold condenses it. 
That evil will 7 , which in his intellect 
Still follows evil, came ; and raised the wind 
And smoky mist, by virtue of the power 
Given by his nature. Thence the valley, soon 
As day was spent, he cover'd o'er with cloud, 
From Pratomagno to the mountain range 8 ; 

Poet took a distinguished part, as we have seen related in his Life. See Fa- 
zio degli Uberti, Dittamondo, lib. ii. cap. xxix. * Giovanna.'] Either 
the wife, or a kinswoman of Buonconte. * The hermit's seat.] The her- 
mitage of Camaldoli. 3 Where its name is cancel'd.] That is, between 
Bibbiena and Poppi, where the Archiano falls into the Arno. 4 Throat.] 
In the former editions it was printed " heart." Mr. Carlyle has observed 
the error. 5 Me God's angel took.] Cum autem flnem vitse explesset 
semis Dei aspiciens vidit diabolum simul et Angelum ad animam stantem 
ac unum quemque illam sibi tollere festinantem. Alberici Visio, § 18. 
6 For one poor tear.] Visum est quod angelus Domini lachrimas quas dives 

ille fuderat in ampulla teneret. Alberici Visio, § 18. 7 That evil 

will.] The devil. Lombard! refers us to Albertus Magnus de Potentia 
Daemonum. This notion of the Evil Spirit having power over the elements, 
appears to have arisen from his being termed the ' prince of the air,' in the 
New Testament. 8 From Pratomagno to the mountain range.] From 
Pratomagno, now called Prato Vecchio, (which divides the Valdarno from 
Casentino,) as far as to the Apennine. 



(202) THE VlilOK. 1 If— IIS. 

And stretched the sky above ; so that the air 
I on pregnat e I _ ed : water. Fell the rain ; 
And to the fosses came all that the land 
Contain'd not ; and, as mightiest streams are wont, 
To the great river, with such headlong sweep, 
Rush'd, that nought stayed its course. My stiffened frame, 
Laid at his mouth, the fell Archiano found, 
And dash'd it into Arno ; from my breast 
Loosening the cross, that of myself I made 
TThen overcome with pain. He hurl'd me on, 
r Along the banks and bottom of his course ; 
Then in his muddy spoils encircling wrapt.'* 

Ah ! when thou to the world shalt be return'd, 
And rested after thy long road," so spake 
N ext the third spirit ; " then remember me. 
I once was Pi a 1 . Sienna gave me life; 
Z laremma took it from me, That he knows, 
Whc me with jewel'd ring had first espoused." 



CAXTO VI. 



aegoeext. 

Many "besides, who are in like case with, those 
beseech onr poet to obtain for them the pray< 
shall be returned to this world. This mores 1 
guide, how the dead can be profited by the p 
solution of which doubt he is referred to B« 
With Sordello the Mantuan, whose affection, 
man, leads Dante to break forth into an inn 
divisions with which Italy, and more especial 

When from their same of dice m 

He who hath lost remains in sadu 
Revolving in his mind 2 what lucl 



_r_ —3 



1 Pia.] She is said to have been a Siamese lady, of the family of To- 
lommei. secretly made away with by her husband NeDo deQa Pietra of 
the same city, in Maremma, where he had some possessions. 

2 Revolving in his mind^\ Kin:.:: If-riiTc 

J. ; : tendo le volte, e triste impara. 
Lombardi explains this : u that the loser remains by himself, and taking 
up the dice casts them over again, as if to leani bow he amy throw the 
numbers he could wish to come up." There is something very natural in 
this; but whether the sense can be Burly deduced from the words, is another 
question. 



1 — 23. PURGATORY, Canto VI. (203) 

He cast : but, meanwhile, all the company 

Go with the other ; one before him runs, 

And one behind his mantle twitches, one 

Fast by his side bids him remember him. 

He stops not ; and each one, to whom his hand 

Is stretch'd, well knows he bids him stand aside ; 

And thus x he from the press defends himself. 

E'en such was I in that close-crowding throng ; 

And turning so my face around to all, 

And promising, I 'scaped from it with pains. 

Here of Arezzo him 2 1 saw, who fell 
By Ghino's cruel arm ; and him beside 3 , 
"Who in his chase was swallow'd by the stream. 
Here Frederic Novello 4 , with his hand 
Stretch'd forth, entreated ; and of Pisa he 5 , 
Who put the good Marzuco to such proof 
Of constancy. Count Orso 6 I beheld ; 
And from its frame a soul dismiss'd for spite 
And envy, as it said, but for no crime ; 
I speak of Peter de la Brosse 7 : and here, 

1 And thus.] The late Archdeacon Fisher pointed out to me a pas- 
sage in the Novela de la Gitanilla of Cervantes, Ed. Valentia, 1797. p. 12., 
from which it appears that it was nsual for money to be given to by- 
standers at play by winners ; and as he well remarked : " Dante is therefore 
describing, with his nsual power of observation, what he had often seen, the 
shuffling, boon-denying exit of the successful gamester." 2 Of Arezzo 
him.] Benincasa of Arezzo, eminent for his skill in jurisprudence, who 
having condemned to death Turrino da Turrita, brother of Ghino di Tacco, 
for Ins robberies in Maremma, was murdered by Ghino, in an apartment of 
his own house, in the presence of many witnesses. Ghino was not only 
suffered to escape in safety, but (as the commentators inform us) obtained 
so high a reputation by the liberality with winch he was accustomed to chV 
pense the fruits of his plunder, and treated those who fell into his hands 
with so much courtesy, that he was afterwards invited to Rome, and 
knighted by Boniface VIII. A story is told of him by Boccaccio, G. x. N. 
2. 3 Him beside.] Cione, or Ciacco de' Tarlatti of Arezzo. He is said 
to have been carried oy his horse into the Arno, and there drowned, while 
he was in pursuit of certain of his enemies. 4 Frederic Novello.] Son 
of the Conte Guido da Battifolle, and slain by one of the family of Bostoli. 
5 Of Pisa he.] Farinata de' Scornigiani of Pisa. His father Marzuco, who 
had entered the order of the Frati Minori, so entirely overcame the feelings 
of resentment, that he even kissed the hands of the slayer of his son, and, as 
he was following the funeral, exhorted his kinsmen to reconciliation. The 
eighteenth and thirtieth in the collection of Guittone d' Arezzo's Letters 
are addressed to Marzuco. The latter is in verse. 6 Count Orso.] Son 
of Xapoleone da Cerbaia, slain by Alberto da Mangona, his uncle. 7 Peter 
de la Brosse.] Secretary of Philip III. of France. The courtiers, envying 
the high place which he held in the king's favour, prevailed on Mary of 



(204) THE VISION. 24-49. 

While she yet lives, that Lady of Brabant, 

Let her beware ; lest for so false a deed 

She herd with worse than these. When I was freed 

From all those spirits, who pray'd for others' prayers 

To hasten on their state of blessedness ; 

Straight I began : " O thou, my luminary! 

It seems expressly in thy text 1 denied, 

That heaven's supreme decree can ever bend 

To supplication ; yet with this design 

Do these entreat. Can then their hope be vain ? 

Or is thy saying not to me reveal'd ? " 

He thus to me : "Both what I write is plain, 
And these deceived not in their hope ; if well 
Thy mind consider, that the sacred height 
Of judgment 2 doth not stoop, because love's flame 
In a short moment all fulfils, which he, 
Who sojourns here, in right should satisfy. 
Besides, when I this point concluded thus, 
By praying no defect could be supplied ; 
Because the prayer had none access to God. 
Yet in this deep suspicion rest thou not 
Contented, unless she assure thee so, 
Who betwixt truth and mind infuses light : 
I know not if thou take me right ; I mean 
Beatrice. Her thou shalt behold above 3 , 
Upon this mountain's crown, fair seat of joy." 

Brabant to charge him falsely with an attempt upon her person ; for which 
supposed crime he suffered death. So say the Italian commentators. 
Henault represents the matter very differently : " Pierre de la Brosse, former- 
ly barber to St. Louis, afterwards the favourite of Philip, fearing the too 
great attachment of the king for his wife Mary, accuses this princess of 
having poisoned Louis, eldest son of Philip, by his first marriage. This 
calumny is discovered by a nun of Nivelle in Flanders. La Brosse is hung." 
Abrege Chron. 1275, &c. The Deputati, or those deputed to write annota- 
tions on the Decameron, suppose that Boccaccio, in the Giornata, ii. No- 
vella 9, took the story from this passage' in Dante, only concealing the real 
names and changing the incidents in some parts, in order not to wound the 
feelings of those whom, as it was believed, these incidents had so lately be- 
fallen. Ediz. Giunti. 1573. p. 40. 

1 In thy text.] He refers to Virgil, JEn. lib. vi. 376. 

Desine fata deum necti sperare precando. 

2 The sacred height 

Of judgment.'] So Shakspeare, Measure for Measure, act ii. sc. 2. 
If he, which is the top of judgment. 
* Above.] See Purgat. c. xxx. v. 32. 



50—75. PURGATORY, Canto VI. (205) 

Then I : " Sir ! let us mend our speed ; for now 
I tire not as before : and lo ! the hill 1 
Stretches its shadow far." He answer'd thus : 
" Our progress with this day shall be as much 
As we may now dispatch ; but otherwise 
Than thou supposest is the truth. For there 
Thou canst not be, ere thou once more behold 
Him back returning, who behind the steep 
Is now so hidden, that, as erst, his beam 
Thou dost not break. But lo ! a spirit there 
Stands solitary, and toward us looks : 
It will instruct us in the speediest way." 

We soon approach'd it. O thou Lombard spirit ! 
How didst thou stand, in high abstracted mood, 
Scarce moving with slow dignity thine eyes. 
It spoke not aught, but let us onward pass, 
Eyeing us as a lion on his watch 2 . 
But Virgil, with entreaty mild, advanced, 
Requesting it to show the best ascent. 
It answer to his question none return'd ; 
But of our country and our kind of life 
Demanded. When my courteous guide began, 
u Mantua," the shadow, in itself absorb'd 3 , 
Rose towards us from the place in which it stood, 
And cried, " Mantuan ! I am thy countryman, 
Sordello 4 ." Each the other then embraced. 

1 The hill.'] It was now past the noon. 

8 Eyeing us as a lion on his watch.] A guisa di leon quando si posa. 
A line taken by Tasso, G. L. can. x. st. 56. 

3 The shadow, in itself absorb' d.~] I had before translated " The solitary 
shadow; " and have made the alteration in consequence of Monti's just re- 
mark on the original, that tutta in se romita does not mean " solitary," but 
M collected, concentrated in itself." See his Proposta under " Romito." 
Vellutello had shown him the way to this interpretation, when he explained 
the words by tutta in se raccolta e sola. Petrarch applies the expression to 
the spirit of Laura, when departing from the body. See his Triumph of 
Death, cap. i. v. 152. 4 Swdello.] The history of Sordello's life is wrapt 
in the obscurity of romance. That he distinguished himself by his skill in 
Provencal poetry is certain ; and many feats of military prowess have been 
attributed to him. It is probable that he was born towards the end of the 
twelfth, and died about the middle of the succeeding century. Tiraboschi, 
who terms him the most illustrious of all the Provencal poets of his age, has 
taken much pains to sift all the notices he could collect relating to him, and 
has particularly exposed the fabulous narrative which Platina has introduced 
on this subject in his history of Mantua. Honourable mention of his name 



: 205; THE VISION. 76—;-. 

Ah, slavish Italy ! thou inn of grief 1 ! 
Vessel without a pilot in loud storm ! 
Lady no longer of fair provinces. 
But brothel-house impure ! this gentle spirit, 
Even from the pleasant sound of his dear land 
Was prompt to greet a fellovr citizen 
With such glad cheer : while now thy living on t 
In thee abide not without war ; and one 
Malicious gnaws another : ay, of those 
TThom the same wall and the same moat contain*. 
Seek, wretched one ! around thy sea-coasts wide ; 
Then homeward to thy bosom turn : and mark. 
If any part of thee sweet peace enjoy. 
What boots it, that thy reins Justinian's hand 3 
Refitted, if thy saddle be unprest ? 
Nought doth he now but aggravate thy shame. 
Ah, people ! thou obedient still shouldst live, 
And in the saddle let thy Caesar sir. 
If well thou marked* st that winch God commands ' 

Look how that beast to felness hath relapsed, 
From having lost correction of the spur, 
Since to the bridle thou hast set thine hand. 

is made by our Poet in the treatise de Vulg. Eloq. lib. i. cap. 15., where :: 
is said that, remarkable as be was for eloquence, be deserted the vernacular 
language of bis own country, not only in bis poems, but ill :::: bind 

of writing. Tiraboscbi bad at first concluded b im to be the tame writes 
whom Dante elsewhere (De Vulg. Eloq. Kb. ii. c. 13.) calls (Sottas Mantua- 
nus, but afterwards gave up that opinion to the authority of the C "ante 
d'Arco and the Abate Bettinelli. By Bastero, in his Crusca Provenzale, 
Ediz. Roma, 1724, p. 94, amongst SoraeDo'a MS. poems in the Vatican are 
mentioned " Canzoni, Tenzoni, Cobbole," and various " Serventesi," parti- 
cularly one in the form of a funeral song on the death of Blancas, in which 
tiie poet reprehends all the reigning princes in Christendom. This last was 
well suited to attract the notice of our author. [Mention of Sordello will re- 
cur in the notes to the Paradise, c. ix. v. 32. Since this note wSB written, 
many of Sordello's poems have been brought to light by the industry of M. 
Raynouard in his Choix des Poesies des Troubadours and his Lexique Roman. 

1 Thou inn of grief] S' io son d'ogni dolore ostello e chiave. 

Vita JSuota di Dante, p. 296 

Thou most beauteous inn, 

"Why should hard-faTOur'd grief be lodged in thee ? 

^Shafapeare, Richard II. act v. 

t Thy living ones.] Compare Milton, P. L. b. ii. 496, &c. * Justinian's 

hand.} u What aTails it that Justinian delivered thee from the Goths and 

reformed thy laws, if thou art no longer under the control of his successors 

in the empire ?" i That which God commands.] He alludes to the pre- 

- — il Render unto Coesar the things which are Caesar's." 



98—119. PURGATORY, Canto VI. (207) 

O German Albert 1 ! who abandon's! her 

That is grown savage and unmanageable, 

When thou shouldst clasp her flanks with forked heels. 

Just judgment from the stars fall on thy blood ; 

And be it strange and manifest to all ; 

Such as may strike thy successor 2 with dread; 

For that thy sire 3 and thou have suner'd thus, 

Through greediness of yonder realms detain'd, 

The garden of the empire to run waste. 

Come, see the Capulets and Montagues 4 , 

The Filippeschi and Monaldi 5 , man 

Who carest for nought ! those sunk in grief, and these 

With dire suspicion rack'd. Come, cruel one ! 

Come, and behold the oppression of the nobles, 

And mark their injuries ; and thou mayst see 

What safety Santafiore can supply 6 . 

Come and behold thy Rome 7 , who calls on thee 

Desolate widow, day and night with moans, 

" My Cassar, why dost thou desert my side ?" 

Come, and behold what love among thy people : 

And if no pity touches thee for us, 

Come, and blush for thine own report. For me, 

1 O German Albert !] The Emperor Albert I. succeeded Adolphus in 1298, 
and was murdered in 1308. See Par. Canto xix. 114. 2 Thy successor.'] 
The successor of Albert was Henry of Luxemburgh, by whose interposition in 
the affairs of Italy our Poet hoped to have been reinstated in his native city. 

3 Thy sire.] The Emperor Rodolph, too intent on increasing his power in 
Germany to give much of his thoughts to Italy, " the garden of the empire." 

4 Capulets and Montagues.] Our ears are so familiarized to the names of 
these rival houses in the language of Shakspeare, that I have used them in- 
stead of the "Montecchi" and " Cappelletti." They were two powerful 
Ghibelline families of Verona. In some parts of that play, of which they 
form the leading characters, our great dramatic poet seems to have been not 
a little indebted to the Hadriana of Luigi Groto, commonly called II cieco 
d'Adria. See Walker's Historical Memoir on Italian Tragedy, 4to. 1799, § i. 
p. 49. b Filippeschi and Monaldi.] Two other rival families in Orvieto. 
6 What safety Santafiore can supply.] A place between Pisa and Sienna. 
What he alludes to is so doubtful, that it is not certain whether we should 
not read " come si cura" — " How Santafiore is governed." Perhaps the 
event related in the note to v. 58, Canto xi. may be pointed at. 7 Come 
aiid behold thy Rome.] Thus in the Latin Epistle to the Cardinals, which 
has been lately discovered in the Laurentian library, and has every appear- 
ance of being Dante's : " Romam urbem, nunc utroque lumine destitutam, 
nunc IJannibali nedum aliis miserandam, solam sedentem et viduam, prout 
superius proclamatur, qualis est, pro modulo nostrae imaginis, ante mortales 
oculos affigatis omnes." Opere minori di Dante, torn. iii. Pte ii. p. 270. 12* 
Fir. 1840. 



(208) THE VISION. 120—153. 

If it be lawful, Almighty Power ! 
Who wast in earth for our sakes crucified, 
Are thy just eyes turn'd elsewhere? or is this 
A preparation, in the wondrous depth 
Of thy sage counsel made, for some good end, 
Entirely from our reach of thought cut off ? 
So are the Italian cities all o'erthrong'd 
"With tyrants, and a great Marcellus Y made 
Of every petty factious villager. 

My Florence ! thou mayst well remain unmoved 
At this digression, which affects not thee : 
Thanks to thy people, who so wisely speed. 
Many have justice in their heart, that long 
Waiteth for counsel to direct the bow, 
Or ere it dart unto its aim : but thine 
Have it on their lip's edge. Many refuse 2 
To bear the common burdens : readier thine 
Answer uncall'd, and cry, " Behold I stoop ! " 

Make thyself glad, for thou hast reason now, 
Thou wealthy ! thou at peace ! thou wisdom-fraught ! 
Facts best will witness if I speak the truth. 
Athens and Lacedsemon, who of old 
Enacted laws, for civil arts renown'd, 
Made little progress in improving life 
Towards thee, who usest such nice subtlety, 
That to the middle of November scarce 
Reaches the thread thou in October weavest. 
How many times within thy memory, 
Customs, and laws, and coins, and offices 
Have been by thee renew'd, and people changed. 

If thou remember'st well and canst see clear, 
Thou wilt perceive thyself like a sick wretch, 3 
Who finds no rest upon her down, but oft 
Shifting her side, short respite seeks from pain. 

1 Marcellus.] Un Marcel diventa _ 

Ogni villan che parteggiando viene. 
Repeated by Alamanni in his Coltivazione, lib. i. He probably means the 
Marcellus who opposed Julius Caesar. 2 Many refuse.'] He appears to 

have been of Plato's mind, that in a commonwealth of worthy men, place 
and power would be as much declined as they are now sought^ after and 
coveted. klvovvevel "TtoXis avdptov ayaQwv el yivoiTO, 7T£pip.axn™v av £l ^ a * 
to fit] apxzw, oiGirep vvv to apx^w. TioXiT. Lib. A. 3 ./i sick wretch.] 
Imitated by the Cardinal de Polignac in his Anti-Lucretius, lib. i. 1052. 



1—21. PURGATORY, Canto VII. (209) 

CANTO VII. 



ARGUMENT. 

The approach, of night hindering further ascent, Sordello conducts our Poet 
apart to an eminence, from whence they behold a pleasant recess, in form 
of a flowery valley, scooped out of the mountain ; where are many famous 
spirits, and among them the Emperor Rodolph, Ottocar king of Bohemia, 
Philip III. of France, Henry of Navarre, Peter III. of Arragon, Charles 
I. of Naples, Henry III. of England, and William, Marquis of Mont- 
ferrat. 

After their courteous greetings joyfully 

Seven times exchanged, Sordello backward drew 

Exclaiming, " Who are ye ?" — " Before this mount 

By spirits worthy of ascent to God 

Was sought, my bones had by Octavius' care 

Been buried. I am Virgil ; for no sin 

Deprived of heaven, except for lack of faith." 

So answer'd him in few my gentle guide. 

As one, who aught before him suddenly 

Beholding, whence his wonder riseth, cries, 

" It is, yet is not," wavering in belief ; 

Such he appear'd ; then downward bent his eyes, 

And, drawing near with reverential step, 

Caught him, where one of mean estate might clasp 

His lord 1 . " Glory of Latium !" he exclaim'd, 

" In whom our tongue its utmost power display'd ; 

Boast of my honour'd birth-place ! what desert 2 

Of mine, what favour, rather, undeserved, 

Shows thee to me ? If I to hear that voice 

Am worthy, say if from below thou comest, 

And from what cloister's pale." — " Through every orb 

Ceu leeturn peragrat membris languentibus seger, 
In latus alterne lamim dextrumque recumbens : 
Nee juvat : inde oculos tollit resupinus in altum : 
Nusquam inventa quies ; semper quaesita : quod illi 
Primum in deliciis fuerat, mox torquet et angit : 
Nee morbum sanat, nee fallit taedia morbi. 
Where one of mean estate might clasp 



His lord.] So Ariosto, Orl. F. c. xxiv. st. 19. 

E l'abbracciaro, ove il maggior s'abbraccia, 
Col capo nudo e col ginocchio chino. 
8 What desert.] So Frezzi : 

Qua! grazia, o qual destin m' ha fatto degno 
Che io ti yeggia. II Quadrir. lib. iv. cap. 9 

P 



(210) THE VISION. 22—55. 

Of that sad region," he replied. i; thus far 

Am I arrived, by heavenly influence led : 

And with such aid I come. Xot for rnv doincr 1 . 

But for not doing, have I lost the sight 

Of that high Sun, whom thou desirest, and who 

By me too late was known. There is a place 2 

There underneath, not made by torments sad, 

But by dun shades alone ; where mourning's voice 

Sounds not of anguish sharp, but breathes in sighs. 

There I with little innocents abide, 

Who by death's fangs were bitten, ere exempt 

From human taint. There I with those abide, 

Who the three holy virtues 3 put not on. 

But understood the rest 4 , and without blame 

Follow'd them all. But, if thou know'st and canst, 

Direct us how we soonest may arrive, 

Where Purgatory its true beginning takes.'' 

He answer'd thus : ;i TTe have no certain place 
Assign'd us : upwards I may go, or round. 
Far as I can. I join thee for thv £uide. 
But thou behoklest now how day declines : 
And upwards to proceed by night, our power 
Excels : therefore it may be well to choose 
A place of pleasant sojourn. To the right 
Some spirits sit apart retired. If thou 
Consentest, I to these will lead thy steps : 
And thou wilt know them, not without delight." 

" How chances this ? * was answer'd : ,; whoso wis 
To ascend by night, would he be thence debarr'd 
Bv other, or through his own weakness fail?" 

The sood Sordello then, alone the ground 
Trailing his linger, spoke : " Only this line 5 
Thou shalt not overpass, soon as the sun 
Hath disappeared ; not that aught else impedes 

1 Not for my doing .] I am indebted to the kindness of Mr Lyell for 
pointing out to me that three lines of the original were here omitted in the 
former editions of this translation. 2 There is a place.] Limbo. See 
Hell, Canto iv. 24. 3 The three holy virtues.] Faith. Hope, and Cha- 
rity. * The rest.] Prudence. Justice. Fortitude, and Temperance. 

5 Only this line.] " VTalk while ye have the light, lest darkness com-? 
upon you ; for he that walketh in darkness, knoweth not whither he gc 
John xii. 35. 



56— SO. PURGATORY, Canto VII. (211) 

Thy going upwards, save the shades of night. 
These, with the want of power, perplex the will. 
With them thou haply mightst return beneath, 
Or to and fro around the mountain's side 
Wander, while day is in the horizon shut." 

My master straight, as wondering at his speech, 
Exclaim' d : " Then lead us quickly, where thou sayst 
That, while we stay, we may enjoy delight." 

A little space we were removed from thence, 
When I perceived the mountain hollow' d out, 
Even as large valleys l hollow' d out on earth. 

" That way," the escorting spirit cried, " we go, 
Where in a bosom the high bank recedes : 
And thou await renewal of the day." 

Betwixt the steep and plain, a crooked path 
Led us traverse into the ridge's side, 
Where more than half the sloping edge expires. 
Refulgent gold, and silver thrice refined, 
And scarlet grain and ceruse, Indian wood 2 
Of lucid dye serene, fresh emeralds 3 
But newly broken, by the herbs and flowers 
Placed in that fair recess, in colour all 
Had been surpass 'd, as great surpasses less. 
Nor nature only there lavish' d her hues, 
But of the sweetness 4 of a thousand smells 

1 As large valleys.'] Viatores enim per viam rectam dum ambulant, 
campum juxta viam cementes spatiosum et pulchram, oblitique itineris, di- 
cunt intra se, Iter per campum istum faciamus, &c. Alberici Visio, § 28. 

2 Indian icood.] Indico legno hicido e sereno. 

It is a little uncertain what is meant by this. Indigo, although it is ex- 
tracted from a herb, seems the most likely. Monti in his Proposta maintains 
it to be ebony. 

3 Fresh emeralds.] Under foot the violet, 

Crocus, and hyacinth with rich inlay 

Broider'd the ground, more colour' d than with stone 

Of costliest emblem. Milton, P. L. b. iv. 703. 

Zaffir, rubini, oro, topazj, e perle, 

E diamanti, e crisoliti e giacinti 

Potriano i fiori assimigliar, che per le 

Liete piagge Y'avea l'aura dipinti ; 

Si yerdi l'erbe, che potendo averle 

Qua giu ne foran gli smeraldi vinti. 

Ariosto, Orl. Fur. Canto xxxiv. st. 49. 

4 The sweetness.] E quella ai fiori, ai pomi, e alia Yerzura 

Gli odor diversi depredando giva, 

p 2 



(212) • THE VISION. 81—109. 

A rare and undistinguish'd fragrance made. 

" Salve Regina V on the grass and flowers, 
Here chanting, I beheld those spirits sit, 
Who not beyond the valley could be seen. 

" Before the westering sun sink to his bed," 
Began the Mantuan, who our steps had turn'd, 
u 'Mid those, desire not that I lead ye on. 
For from this eminence ye shall discern 
Better the acts and visages of all, 
Than, in the nether vale, among them mix'd. 
He, who sits high above the rest, and seems 
To have neglected that he should have done, 
And to the others' song moves not his lip, 
The Emperor Rodolph 2 call, who might have heal'd 
The wounds whereof fair Italy hath died, 
So that by others she revives but slowly. 
He, who with kindly visage comforts him, 
Sway'd in that country 3 , where the water springs, 
That Moldaw's river to the Elbe, and Elbe 
Rolls to the ocean : Ottocar 4 his name : 
Who in his swaddling clothes was of more worth 
Than Winceslaus his son, a bearded man, 
Pamper'd with rank luxuriousness and ease. 
And that one with the nose deprest 5 , who close 
In counsel seems with him of gentle look 6 , 
Flying expired, withering the lily's flower. 
Look there, how he doth knock against his breast. 
The other ye behold, who for his cheek 
Makes of one hand a couch, with frequent sighs. 

E di tutti faceva una mistura, 

Che di soavita l'alma notriva. Ibid. st. 51. 

1 Salve Regina.] The beginning of a prayer to the Virgin. It is suffi- 
cient here to observe, that in similar instances I shall either preserve the 
original Latin words or translate them, as it may seem best to suit the pur- 
pose of the verse. 2 The Emperor Rodolph.] See the last Canto, v. 104. 
He died in 1291. 3 That country.] Bohemia. 4 Ottocar.] King of 
Bohemia, who was killed in the battle of Marchneld, fought with Rodolph, 
August 26, 1278. Winceslaus II. his son, who succeeded him in the king- 
dom of Bohemia, died in 1305. The latter is again taxed with luxury in 
the Paradise, xix. 123. b That one with the nose deprest.] Philip III. 
of France, father of Philip IV. He died in 1285, at Perpignan, in his re- 
treat from Arragon. 6 Him of gentle look.] Henry of Navarre, father 
of Jane married to Philip IV. of France, whom Dante calls "mal di Fran- 
cia" — " Gallia's bane.'* 



110—122. PURGATORY, Canto VII. (213) 

They are the father and the father-in-law 

Of Gallia's bane 1 : his vicious life they know 

And foul ; thence comes the grief that rends them thus. 

" He, so robust of limb 2 , who measure keeps 
In song with him of feature prominent 3 , 
With every virtue bore his girdle braced. 
And if that stripling 4 , who behind him sits, 
King after him had lived, his virtue then 
From vessel to like vessel had been pour'd ; 
Which may not of the other heirs be said. 
By James and Frederick 5 his realms are held ; 
Neither the better heritage obtains. 
Rarely 6 into the branches of the tree 

1 Gallia s bane.'] G. Villain, lib. vii. cap. cxlvi. speaks with equal resent- 
ment of Philip IV. " In 1291, on the night of the calends of May, Philip 
le Bel, King of France, by advice of Biccio and Musciatto Franzesi, ordered 
all the Italians, who were in his country and realm, to be seized, under pre- 
tence of seizing the money-lenders, but thus he caused the good merchants 
also to be seized and ransomed ; for which he was much blamed and held in 
great abhorrence. And from thenceforth the realm of France fell evermore 
into degradation and decline. And it is observable, that between the taking 
of Acre" and this seizure in France, the merchants of Florence received great 
damage and ruin of their property." 2 He, so robust of limb.j Peter 
III. called the Great, King of Arragon, who died in 12§5, leaving four 
sons, Alonzo, James, Frederick, and Peter. The two former succeeded 
him in the kingdom of Arragon, and Frederick in that of Sicily. See G. 
Villani, lib. vii. cap. cii. and Mariana, lib. xiv. cap. 9. He is enumerated 
among the Provencal poets by Millot, Hist. Litt. des Troubadours, torn. iii. 
p. 150. B Hitn of feature prominent.] " Dal maschio naso " — " with the 
masculine nose." Charles I. King of ^Naples, Count of Anjou, and brother 
of St. Louis. He died in 1284. The annalist of Florence remarks, that 
"there had been no sovereign of the house of France, since the time of 
Charlemagne, by whom Charles was surpassed either in military renown 
and prowess, or in the loftiness of his understanding." G. Villani, lib. vii. 
cap. xciv. We shall, however, find many of his actions severely reprobated 
in the twentieth Canto. * That stripling.] Either (as the old com- 

mentators suppose) Alonzo III. King of Arragon, the eldest son of Peter III. 
who died in 1291, at the age of 27 ; or, according to Venturi, Peter the 
youngest son. The former was a young prince of virtue sufficient to have 
justified the eulogium and the hopes of Dante. See Mariana, lib. xiv. cap. 
14. 5 By James and Frederick.] See note to Canto iii. 112. 
6 Rarely.] Full well can the wise poet of Florence, 

That hight Dantes, speake in this sentence ; 

Lo ! in such manner rime is Dantes tale. 

Full selde upriseth by his branches smale 

Prowesse of man, for God of his goodnesse 

Woll that we claim of him our gentlenesse : 

For of our elders may we nothing claime 

But temporal thing, that men may hurt and maime. 

Chaucer, Wife of Bathe's Tale. 



(214) THE VISION. 123—138. 

Doth human worth mount up : and so ordains 

He who bestows it, that as his free gift 

It may be calTd. To Charles l nry words apply 

No less than to his brother in the song ; 

Which Pouille and Provence now with grief confess. 

So much that plant degenerates from its seed, 

As, more than Beatrix and Margaret, 

Costanza 2 still boasts of her valorous spouse. 

" Behold the king of simple life and plain, 
Harry of England 3 , sitting there alone : 
He through his branches better issue 4 spreads. 

" That one, who, on the ground, beneath the rest, 
Sits lowest, yet his gaze directs aloft, 
Is "William, that brave Marquis 5 , for whose cause, 
The deed of Alexandria and his war 
Makes Montferrat and Canavese weep." 

Compare Homer, Od. b. ii. v. 276. Pindar, Nem. xi. 48. and Euripides. 
Electra, 369. 

1 To Charles.] " Al Nasuto "— " Charles II. King of Naples, is no less 
inferior to his father Charles I. than James and Frederick to theirs, Peter 
III." See Canto xx. 78, and Paradise, Canto xix. 125. 2 Costanza.'] 

Widow of Peter III. She has been already mentioned in the third Canto, 
v. 112. By Beatrix and Margaret are probably meant two of the daughters 
of Raymond Berenger, Count of Provence ; the latter married to St. Louis 
of France, the former to his brother Charles of Anjou, King of Naples. See 
Paradise, Canto vi. 13-5. Dante therefore considers Peter as the most illus- 
trious of the three monarchs. 3 Harry of England.] Henry III. The 
contemporary annalist speaks of this king in similar terms. Gr. Yillani, lib. 
t. cap. iv. " From Richard was bom Henry, who reigned after him, who 
was a plain man and of good faith, but of little courage. " "With the excep- 
tion of the last part of the sentence, which must be changed for its opposite, 
we might well imagine ourselves to be reading the character of our present 
venerable monarch. (A. D. 1819.) Fazio degli Uberti, Dittamondo, 1. iv. 
cap. xxv. where he gives the characters of our Norman kings, speaks less re- 
spectfully of Heniy. Capitoli xxiii — xxv. lib. iv. of this neglected poem ap- 
pear to deserve the notice of our antiquarians. 4 Better issue.] Edward 
I. of whose glory our Poet was perhaps a witness, in his visit to England. 
" From the said Henry was born the good king Edward, who reigns in our 
times, who has done great things, whereof we shall make mention in due 
place." G. Villani, ibid. 5 William, that brave Marquis.] William, 
Marquis of Montferrat, was treacherously seized by his own subjects, at 
Alessandria in Lombardy, A. D. 1290, and ended his life in prison. See G. 
Yillani, lib. vii. cap. cxxxv. A war ensued between the people of Alessandria 
and those of Montferrat and the Canavese, now a part of Piedmont. 



1—19. PURGATORY, Canto VIII. (215) 

CANTO VIII. 



ARGUMENT. 

Two angels, with flaming swords broken at the points, descend to keep watch 
over the valley, into which Virgil and Dante entering by desire of Sor- 
dello, our Poet meets with joy the spirit of "Nino, the judge of Gallura, one 
who was well known to him. Meantime three exceedingly bright stars 
appear near the pole, and a serpent creeps subtly into the valley, but flees 
at hearing the approach of those angelic guards. Lastly, Conrad Mala- 
spina predicts to our Poet his future banishment. 

Now was the hour that wakens fond desire 
In men at sea, and melts their thoughtful heart 
^Tho in the morn have bid sweet friends farewel, 
And pilgrim newly on his road with love 
Thrills, if he hear the vesper bell from far *, 
That seems to mourn for the expiring day 2 : 
TVhen I, no longer taking heed to hear, 
Began, with wonder, from those spirits to mark 
One risen from its seat, which with its hand 
Audience implored. Both palms it join'd and raised, 
Fixing its stedfast gaze toward the east, 
As telling God, " I care for nought beside." 

" Te Lucis Ante 3 ," so devoutly then 
Came from its lip, and in so soft a strain, 
That all my sense 4 in ravishment was lost. 
And the rest after, softly and devout, 
Folio w'd through all the hymn, with upward gaze 
Directed to the bright supernal wheels. 

Here, reader 5 ! for the truth make thine eyes keen : 

1 Hear the vesper bell from far."] 

I hear the far-off curfeu sound. Milton's Penseroso. 

2 Tliat seems to mourn for the expiring day.'] 

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day. Gray's Elegy. 

giorno — che si muore 

is from Statius : Jam moriente die. Sylv. 1. iv. 6. 3. 

3 Te Lucis Ante.] ' Te lucis ante terminum,' says Lombardi, is the first 
Terse of the hymn sung by the church in the last part of the sacred office 
termed compieta, a service which our Chaucer calls " complin." 

4 All my sense.] Fece me a me uscir di mente. 

Me surpuerat mini. Horat. Carm. lib. iv. od. 13. 

' a Here, reader f] Lombardi' s explanation of this passage, by which the 

commentators have been much perplexed, though it may be thought rather 

too subtle and fine-spun, like the veil itself spoken of in the text, cannot be 

denied the praise of extraordinary ingenuity. u This admonition of the poet 



(216) THE VISION. 20—44. 

For of so subtle texture is this veil, 

That thou with ease mayst pass it through unmark'd. 

I saw that gentle band silently next 
Look up, as if in expectation held, 
Pale and in lowly guise ; and, from on high, 
I saw, forth issuing descend beneath, 
Two angels, with two flame-illumined swords, 
Broken and mutilated of their points. 
Green as the tender leaves but newly born, 
Their vesture was, the which, by wings as green 
Beaten, they drew behind them, fann'd in air. 
A little over us one took his stand ; 
The other lighted on the opposing hill ; 
So that the troop were in the midst contain'd. 

Well I descried the whiteness on their heads ; 
But in their visages the dazzled eye 
Was lost, as faculty 1 that by too much 
Is overpower'd. " From Mary's bosom both 
Are come," exclaim'd Sordello, " as a guard 
Over the vale, 'gainst him, who hither tends, 
The serpent." Whence, not knowing by which path 
He came, I turn'd me round ; and closely press' d, 
All frozen, to my leader's trusted side. 

Sordello paused not : " To the valley now 
(For it is time) let us descend ; and hold 

to his reader," he observes, "seems to relate to what has been before said, 
that these spirits sung the whole of the hymn ' Te lucis ante terminum ' 
throughout, even that second strophe of it — 

Procul recedant somnia, Hostemque nostrum comprime, 

Et noctium phantasmata, * Ne polluantur corpora ; 

and he must imply, that these souls, being incorporeal, did not offer up this 
petition on their own account, but on ours, who are yet in this world ; as he 
afterwards makes those other spirits, who repeat the Pater Noster, expressly 
declare, when after that prayer they add, 

This last petition, dearest Lord ! is made 
Not for ourselves, &c. Canto xi. 

As, therefore, if we look through a very fine veil, the sight easily passes on, 
without perceiving it, to objects that lie on the other side ; so here the poet 
fears that our mind's eye may insensibly pass on to contemplate these spirits, 
as if they were praying for the relief of their own wants ; without discovering 
the veil of our wants, with which they invest themselves in the act of offering 
up this prayer." 

1 As faculty. ,] My earthly by his heavenly overpower'd 

As with an object, that excels the sense, 

Dazzled and spent. Milton, P. L. b. viii. 457. 



45—73. PURGATORY, Canto VIII. (217) 

Converse with those great shadows : haply much 
Their sight may please ye." Only three steps down 
Methinks I measured, ere I was beneath, 
And noted one who look'd as with desire 
To know me. Time was now that air grew dim ; 
Yet not so dim, that, 'twixt his eyes and mine, 
It clear' d not up what was conceal'd before. 
Mutually towards each other we advanced. 
Nino, thou courteous judge 1 ! what joy I felt, 
"When I perceived thou wert not with the bad. 

No salutation kind on either part 
Was left unsaid. He then inquired : " How long, 
Since thou arrived'st at the mountain's foot, 
Over the distant waves ?" — " Oh I" answer' d I, 
" Through the sad seats of woe this morn I came ; 
And still in my first life, thus journeying on, 
The other strive to gain." Soon as they heard 
My words, he and Sordello backward drew, 
As suddenly amazed. To Virgil one, 
The other to a spirit turn'd, who near 
Was seated, crying : " Conrad 2 ! up with speed : 
Come, see what of his grace high God hath will'd." 
Then turning round to me : " By that rare mark 
Of honour, which thou owest to him, who hides 
So deeply his first cause it hath no ford ; 
When thou shalt be beyond the vast of waves, 
Tell my Giovanna 3 , that for me she call 
There, where reply to innocence is made. 
Her mother 4 , I believe, loves me no more ; 

1 Xino, thou courteous judge.'] Xino di Gallura de' Visconti, nephew to 
Count Ugolino de' Gherardeschi, and betrayed by him. See notes to Hell, 
Canto xxxiii. 2 Conrad.'] Currado, father to Marcello Malaspina. 

3 My Giovanna.] The daughter of Xino, and wife of Riccardo da Camino 
of Treyigi, concerning whom see Paradise, c. ix. 48. 4 Her mother.] 
Beatrice, Marchioness of Este, wife of Xino, and after his death married to 
Galeazzo de' Visconti of Milan. It is remarked by Lombardi, that the time 
which Dante assigns to this journey, and consequently to this colloquy with 
Xino Visconti, the beginning, that is, of April, is prior to the time which 
Bernardino Corio, in his history of Milan, part the second, fixes for the 
nuptials of Beatrice with Galeazzo ; for he records her haying been betrothed 
to that prince after the May of this year (1300), and her haying been 
solemnly espoused at Modena on the 29th of June. Besides, howeyer, the 
greater credit due to Dante, on account of his haying liyed at the time when 
these eyents happened, another circumstance in his fayour is the discrepancy 



(21S) THE VISION. 74—99. 

Since she has changed the white and wimpled folds 1 , 

Which she is doorn'd once more with grief to wish. 

By her it easily may be perceived, 

How long in woman lasts the flame of love, 

If sight and touch do not relume it oft. 

For her so fair a burial will not make 

The viper 2 , which calls Milan to the field, 

As had been made by shrill Gallura's bird 3 ." 

He spoke, and in his visage took the stamp 
Of that right zeal, which with due temperature 
Glows in the bosom. My insatiate eyes 
Meanwhile to heaven had travel' d, even there 
Where the bright stars are slowest, as a wheel 
Nearest the axle ; when my guide inquired : 
" What there aloft, my son, has caught thy gaze?" 

I answered : " The three torches 4 , with which here 
The pole is all on fire." He then to me : 
" The four resplendent stars, thou saw'st this morn, 
Are there beneath ; and these, risen in their stead." 

While yet he spoke, Sordello to himself 
Drew him, and cried : " Lo there our enemy! " 
And with his hand pointed that way to look. 

Along the side, where barrier none arose 
Around the little vale, a serpent lay, 
Such haply as gave Eve the bitter food 5 . 
Between the grass and flowers, the evil snake 

remarked by Giovambatista Giraldi (Commentar. delle cose di Ferrara) in 
those writers by whom the history of Beatrice's life has been recorded. 
Nothing can set the general accuracy of onr Poet, as to historical facts, in a 
stronger point of view, than the difficulty there is in convicting him of even 
so slight a deviation from it as is here suspected. l The white and wim- 
pled/olds.] The weeds of widowhood. 2 The viper, .] The arms of Gu- 
leazzo and the ensign of the Milanese. 3 Shrill Gallura's bird.'] The 
cock was the ensign of Gallura, Nino's province in Sardinia. Hell, xxii. 
80, and notes. It is not known whether Beatrice had any further cause to 
regret her nuptials with Galeazzo, than a certain shame which appears, how- 
ever unreasonably, to have attached to a second marriage. 4 The three 
torches.] The three evangelical virtues, Faith, Hope, and Charity. These 
are supposed to rise in the evening, in order to denote their belonging to the 
contemplative ; as the four others, which are made to rise in the morning, 
were probably intended to signify that the cardinal virtues belong to the 
active life : or perhaps it may mark the succession, in order of time, of the 
Gospel to the heathen system of morality. 5 Such haply as gave Eve the 
bitter food.] Compare Milton's description of that serpent in the ninth book 
of the Paradise Lost. 



100—133. PURGATORY, Canto VIII. (219) 

Came on, reverting oft his lifted head ; 
And, as a beast that smooths its polish'd coat, 
Licking his back. I saw not, nor can tell, 
How those celestial falcons from their seat 
Moved, but in motion each one well descried. 
Hearing the air cut by their verdant plumes, 
The serpent fled ; and, to their stations, back 
The angels up return'd with equal flight. 

The spirit, (who to Nino, when he call'd, 
Had come,) from viewing me with fixed ken, 
Through all that conflict, loosen'd not his sight. 

" So may the lamp l , which leads thee up on high, 
Find, in thy free resolve, of wax so much, 
As may suffice thee to the enamel'd height,'' 
It thus began : "If any certain news 
Of Valdimagra 2 and the neighbour part 
Thou know'st, tell me, who once was mighty there. 
They call'd me Conrad Malaspina ; not 
That old one 3 ; but from him I sprang. The love 
I bore my people is now here refined." 

" In your domains," I answer'd, " ne'er was I. 
But, through all Europe, where do those men dwell, 
To whom their glory is not manifest ? 
The fame, that honours your illustrious house, 
Proclaims the nobles, and proclaims the land ; 
So that he knows it, who was never there. 
I swear to you, so may my upward route 
Prosper, your honour'd nation not impairs 
The value of her coffer and her sword. 
Nature and use give her such privilege, 
That while the world is twisted from his course 
By a bad head, she only walks aright, 
And has the evil way in scorn." He then : 
" Now pass thee on : seven times the tired sun 4 

1 May the lamp.] "May the divine grace find so hearty a co-operation 
on the part of thy own will, as shall enable thee to ascend to the terrestrial 
paradise, which is on the top of this mountain." 2 Valdimagra.] See 
Hell, Canto xxiv. 144, and notes. 3 That old one.] An ancestor of Con- 
rad Malaspina, who was also of that name. 4 Seven times the tired sun.] 
" The sun shall not enter into the constellation of Aries seven times more, 
before thou shalt have still better cause for the good opinion thou expressest 
of Valdimagra, in the kind reception thou shalt there meet with." Dante 



(220) THE VISION. 134—138. 

Revisits not the couch, which with four feet 
The forked Aries covers, ere that kind 
Opinion shall be nail'd into thy brain 
With stronger nails than other's speech can drive ; 
If the sure course of judgment be not stay'd." 



CANTO IX, 



ARGUMENT. 

Dante is carried up the mountain, asleep and dreaming, by Lucia ; and, on 
wakening, finds himself, two hours after sunrise, with Virgil, near the 
gate of Purgatory, through which they are admitted by the angel deputed 
by Saint Peter to keep it. 

Now the fair consort of Tithonus old \ 
Arisen from her mate's beloved arms, 
Look'd palely o'er the eastern cliff ; her brow, 
Lucent with jewels, glitter'd, set in sign 
Of that chill animal 2 , who with his train 
Smites fearful nations : and where then we were, 
Two steps of her ascent the night had past ; 
And now the third was closing up its wing 3 , 

was hospitably received by the Marchese Marcello, or Morello Malaspina, 
during his banishment, A. D. 1307. 

1 Now the fair consort of Tithonus old.] La concubina di Titone antico. 
So Tassoni, Secchia Hapita, c. viii. st. 15. La puttanella del canuto amante. 
Yenturi, after some of the old commentators, interprets this to mean an 
Aurora, or dawn of the moon ; but this seems highly improbable. From 
what follows it may be conjectured, that our Poet intends us to understand 
that it was now near the break of day. 2 Of that chill animaJ.] The 
scorpion. 3 The third was closing up its wing."] The night being divided 
into four watches, I think he may mean that the third was past, and the 
fourth and last was begun, so that there might be some faint glimmering of 
morning twilight ; and not merely, as Lombardi supposes, that the third 
watch was drawing towards its close, which would still leave an insurmount- 
able difficulty in the first verse. At the beginning of Canto xv. our Poet 
makes the evening commence three hours before sunset, and he may now 
consider the dawn as beginning at the same distance from sunrise. Those, 
who would have the dawn, spoken of in the first verse of the present Canto, 
to signify the rising of the moon, construe the " two steps of her ascent which 
the night had past," into as many hours, and not watches ; so as to make it 
now about the third hour of the night. The old Latin annotator on the 
Monte Casino MS. alone, as far as I know, supposing the division made by 
St. Isidore (Orig. lib. 5.) of the night into seven parts to be adopted by our 
Poet, concludes that it was the third of these ; and he too, therefore, is for 
the lunar dawn. Rosa Morando ingenuously confesses, that to him the 
whole passage is "non esplicabile o almeno difncillimo," inexplicable, or, a 
best, extremely difficult. 



9—28. PURGATORY, Canto IX. (221) 

When I, who had so much of Adam with me, 

Sank down upon the grass, o'er come with sleep, 

There where all five 1 were seated. In that hour, 

When near the dawn the swallow her sad lay, 

Remembering haply ancient grief 2 , renews ; 

And when our minds, more wanderers from the flesh, 

And less by thought restrain'd, are, as 't were, full 

Of holy divination in their dreams ; 

Then, in a vision, did I seem to view 

A golden-feather'd eagle 3 in the sky, 

With open wings, and hovering for descent ; 

And I was in that place, methought, from whence 

Young Ganymede, from his associates 'reft, 

Was snatch'd aloft to the high consistory. 

" Perhaps," thought I within me, "here alone 

He strikes his quarry, and elsewhere disdains 

To pounce upon the prey." Therewith, it seem'd, 

A little wheeling in his aery tour, 

Terrible as the lightning, rush'd he down, 

And snatch'd me upward even to the fire. 

1 All Jive.] Virgil, Dante, Sordello, Nino, and Currado Malaspina. 

* Remembering hajrfy ancient grief.'] Progne haying been changed into 
a swallow after the outrage done her by Tereus. See Ovid, Metam. lib. vi. 

3 A golden-feather'd eagle.] So Chaucer, in the House of Fame, at the 
conclusion of the first book and beginning of the second, represents himself 
carried up by the " grim pawes " of a golden eagle. Much of his descrip- 
tion is closely imitated from Dante : — 

Methought I saw an eagle sore. 

It was of golde and shone so bright, 

That never sawe men soche a sight. The House of Fame, b. i. 

This eagle, of which I have you tolde, 

That with fethirs shone al of golde, 

"Whiche that so hie gan to sore, 

I gan beholdin more and more 

To seen her beautee and the wonder, 

But never was that dente of thonder, 

Ne that thinge that men callin foudre, 

That smite sometime a toure to poudre, 

And in his swifte comminge brend, 

That so swithe gan downwarde discende 

As this foule whan that it behelde, 

That I a roume was in the felde, 

And with his grim pawes stronge, 

Within his sharpe nailis longe, 

Me fleyng at a swappe he hent, &c. Ibid. b. ii. 

" Avis Candida colunibae siniilis adveniens per comani capitis suo 

me ore apprehendens ferre sublimem cepit." Alberici Visio, § 1. 






.222) THE VISION. 29—67. 

There both, I thought, the eagle and myself 

Did burn ; and so intense the imagined flames. 

That needs mv sleep was broken off. As erst 

Achilles shook himself, and round him roll'd 

His waken'd eyeballs, wondering where he was. 

Whenas his mother had from Chiron fled 

To Scyros, with him sleeping in her arms ; 

(There 1 whence the Greeks did after sunder him ;) 

E'en thus I shook me, soon as from mv face 

The slumber parted, turning deadly pale. 

Like one ice-struck with dread. Sole at my side 

My comfort stood : and the bright sun was now 

More than two hours aloft : and to the sea 

My looks were turn'd. " Fear not,*' my master or 

" Assured we are at happy point. Thy strength 

Shrink not, but rise dilated. Thou art come 

To Purgatory now. Lo ! there the cliff 

That circling bounds it. Lo ! the entrance there. 

Where it doth seem disparted. Ere the dawn 

Usher'd the day-light, when thy wearied soul 

Slept in thee, o'er the flowery vale beneath 

A lady came, and thus bespake me : ' I 

'Am Lucia 2 . Suffer me to take this man, 

• Who slumbers. Easier so his way shall speed.' 

Sordello and the other gentle shapes 

Tarrying, she bare thee up : and, as day shone, 

This summit reack'd : and I pursued her steps. 

Here did she place thee. First, her lovely eyes 

That open entrance show'd me ; then at once 

She vanish'd with thy sleep." Like one, whose doubts 

Are chased by certainty, and terror turn'd 

To comfort on discovery of the truth, 

Such was the change in me : and as my guide 

Beheld me fearless, up along the cliff 

He moved, and I behind him, towards the height. 

Header ! thou markest how my theme doth rise ; 
Nor wonder therefore, if more artfully 
I prop the structure. Nearer now we drew. 
Arrived whence, in that part, where first a breach 

1 There.] Mr. Darley has noted the omission of this line in the preceding- 
editions. 2 Lucia.'] "See Hell, e. ii. 97. and Paradise, c. xxxii. 120. 



68—101. PURGATORY, Canto IX. (223) 

As of a wall appear'd, I could descry 

A portal, and three steps beneath, that led 

For inlet there, of different colour each ; 

And one who watch'd, but spake not yet a word. 

As more and more mine eye did stretch its view, 

I mark'd him seated on the highest step, 

In visage such, as past my power to bear. 

Grasp'd in his hand, a naked sword glanced back 

The rays so towards me, that I oft in vain 

My sight directed. " Speak, from whence ye stand ;" 

Pie cried : " What would ye ? Where is your escort ? 

Take heed your coming upward harm ye not." 

" A heavenly dame, not skilless of these things,'' 
Replied the instructor, " told us, even now, 
1 Pass that way : here the gate is.' " — " And may she, 
Befriending, prosper your ascent," resumed 
The courteous keeper of the gate : " Come then 
Before our steps." We straightway thither came. 

The lowest stair l was marble white, so smooth 
And polish'd, that therein my mirror'd form 
Distinct I saw. The next of hue more dark 
Than sablest grain, a rough and singed block, 
Crack'd lengthwise and across. The third, that lay 
Massy above, seem'd porphyry, that flamed 
Red as the life-blood spouting from a vein. 
On this God's angel either foot sustain'd, 
Upon the threshold seated, which appear'd 
A rock of diamond. Up the trinal steps 
My leader cheerly drew me. " Ask," said he, 
" With humble heart, that he unbar the bolt." 

Piously at his holy feet devolved 
I cast me, praying him for pity's sake 
That he would open to me ; but first fell 
Thrice on my bosom prostrate. Seven times 2 

1 The lowest stai?\~\ By the white step is meant the distinctness with, which 
the conscience of the penitent reflects his offences ; hy the hnrnt and cracked 
one, his contrition on their account ; and by that of porphyry, the fervour 
with which he resolves on the future pursuit of piety and virtue. Hence, no 
doubt, Milton describing " the gate of heaven," P. L. b. iii. 516. 

Each stair mysteriously was meant. 

2 Seven ti?nes.] Seven P's, to denote the seven sins (Peccata) of which 
he was to be cleansed in his passage through Purgatory. 



(224) THE VISION. 102—129. 

The letter, that denotes the inward stain, 

He, on my forehead, with the blunted point 

Of his drawn sword, inscribed. And " Look," he cried, 

" When enter' d, that thou wash these scars away." 

Ashes, or earth ta'en dry out of the ground, 
Were of one colour with the robe he wore. 
From underneath that vestment forth he drew 
Two keys \ of metal twain : the one was gold, 
Its fellow silver. With the pallid first, 
And next the burnish'd, he so ply'd the gate, 
As to content me well. " Whenever one 
Faileth of these, that in the key-hole straight 
It turn not, to this alley then expect 
Access in vain." Such were the words he spake. 
" One is more precious 2 : but the other needs, 
Skill and sagacity, large share of each, 
Ere its good task to disengage the knot 
Be worthily perform'd. From Peter these 
I hold, of him instructed that I err 
Rather in opening, than in keeping fast ; 
So but the suppliant at my feet implore." 

Then of that hallow' d gate he thrust the door, 
Exclaiming, " Enter, but this warning hear : 
He forth again departs who looks behind." 

As in the hinges of that sacred ward 
The swivels turn'd, sonorous metal strong, 
Harsh was the grating 3 ; nor so surlily 
Roar'd the Tarpeian 4 , when by force bereft 

1 Two keys.] Lonibardi remarks, that painters hare usually drawn Saint 
Peter with two keys, the one of gold and the other of silver ; but that Nic- 
colo Alemanni, in his Dissertation de Parietinis Lateranensibus, produces 
instances of his being represented ^with one key, and with three. We have 
here, however, not Saint Peter, but an angel deputed by him. 2 One is 

more precious.] The golden key denotes the divine authority by which the 
priest absolves the sinners : the silver expresses the learning and judgment 
requisite for the due discharge of that office. 
* Harsh was the grating.] 

On a sudden open fly 

"With impetuous recoil and jarring sound 
The infernal doors, and on their hrng-es grate 
Harsh thunder. Milton. P. L. b. ii. 882. 

4 The Tarpeian.] 

Protinus abducto patuerunt templa Metelio. 
Tunc rupes Tarpeia sonat : magnoque reclusas 
Testatur stridore fores : tunc conditus imo 



130—138. PURGATORY, Canto IX. (225) 

Of good Metellus, thenceforth from his loss 

To leanness doom'd. Attentively I turn'd, 

Listening the thunder that first issued forth ; 

And " We praise thee, O God," methought I heard, 

In accents blended with sweet melody. 

The strains came o'er mine ear, e'en as the sound 

Of choral voices, that in solemn chant 

With organ l mingle, and, now high and clear 

Come swelling, now float indistinct away. 

CANTO X. 



ARGUMENT. 

Being admitted at the gate of Purgatory, our Poets ascend a winding path 
up the rock, till they reach an open and level space that extends each way 
round the mountain. On the side that rises, and which is of white marble, 
are seen artfully engraven many stories of humility, which whilst they are 
contemplating, there approach the souls of those who expiate the sin of 
pride, and who are bent down beneath the weight of heavy stones. 

When we had past the threshold of the gate, 
(Which the soul's ill affection doth disuse, 
Making the crooked seem the straighter path,) 
I heard its closing sound. Had mine eyes turn'd, 
For that offence what plea might have avail'd ? 
We mounted up the riven rock, that wound 2 
On either side alternate, as the wave 

Eruitur templo multis intactus ab annis 

Romani census populi, &c. Lucan, Ph. lib. iii. 157. 

The tribune with unwilling steps withdrew, 

"While impious hands the rude assault renew ; 

The brazen gates with thundering strokes resound, 

And the Tarpeian mountain rings around. 

At length the sacred storehouse, open laid, 

The hoarded wealth of ages past displayed. Roice. 

1 Organ.'] Organs were used in Italy as early as in the sixth century. 
See Tiraboschi, Stor. della Lett. Ital. 4to. vol. iii. lib. iii. cap. i. § 11, where 
the following description of that instrument is quoted from Cassiodorus, in 
Psalm. 150: — " Organum itaque est quasi turris diversis fistulis fabricata, 
quibus flatu follium vox copiosissima destinatur, et ut earn modulatio decora 
componat, Unguis quibusdam ligneis ab interiore parte construitur, quas dis- 
ciphnabiliter Magistrorum digit! reprimentes grandisonam efficiunt et suavi- 
sonam cantilenam." If I remember right there is a passage in the Emperor 
Julian's writings, which shows that the organ was not unknown in his time. 

2 That wound.] Venturi justly observes, that the Padre d* Aquino has 
misrepresented the sense of this passage in his translation. 

Q 



(226) THE VISION. 8—37. 

Flies and advances. " Here some little art 
Behoves us," said my leader, " that our steps 
Observe the varying flexure of the path." 

Thus we so slowly sped, that with cleft orb 
The moon once more o'erhangs her watery couch, 
Ere we that strait have threaded. But when free, 
We came, and open, where the mount above 
One solid mass retires ; I spent with toil \ 
And both uncertain of the way, we stood, 
Upon a plain more lonesome than the roads 
That traverse desert wilds. From whence the brink 
Borders upon vacuity, to foot 
Of the steep bank that rises still, the space 
Had measured thrice the stature of a man : 
And, distant as mine eye could wing its flight, 
To leftward now and now to right dispatch'd, 
That cornice equal in extent appear'd. 
J Not jet our feet had on that summit moved, 
When I discover'd that the bank, around, 
Whose proud uprising all ascent denied, 
Was marble white ; and so exactly wrought 
With quaintest sculpture, that not there alone 
Had Polycletus, but e'en nature's self 
Been shamed. The angel (who came down to earth 
With tidings of the peace so many years 
Wept for in vain, that oped the heavenly gates 
From their long interdict) before us seem'd, 
In a sweet act, so sculptured to the life, 
He look'd no silent image. One had sworn 
He had said "Hail 2 !" for she was imaged there, 



dabat ascensum tendentibus ultra 

Scissa tremensque silex, tenuique erratica motu. 
The verb " muover " is used in the same signification in the Inferno, Canto 
xviii. 21. 

Cosi da hno della roccia scogli from the rock's low base 

Moven. Thus flinty paths advanced. 

In neither place is actual motion intended to be expressed. 

1 / spent with toil.'] Dante only was wearied, because he only had the 
weight of a bodily frame to encumber him. 

2 HaiL] On whom the angel Hail 

Bestow'd, the holy salutation used 

Long after to blest Mary, second Eve. Milton, P. L. v. 387. 
" The basso relievo on the border of the second rock, in Purgatory, fur- 
nished the idea of the Annunziata, painted by Marcello Yenusti from his 



38—69. PURGATORY, Canto X. (227) 

By whom the key did open to God's love ; 
And in her act as sensibly imprest 
That word, " Behold the handmaid of the Lord," 
As figure seal'd on wax. " Fix not thy mind 
On one place only," said the guide beloved, 
Who had me near him on that part where lies 
The heart of man. My sight forthwith I turn'd, 
And mark'd, behind the virgin mother's form, 
Upon that side where he that moved me stood, 
Another story graven on the rock. 

I past athwart the bard, and drew me near, 
That it might stand more aptly for my view. 
There, in the self-same marble, were engraved 
The cart and kine, drawing the sacred ark, 
That from unbidden office awes mankind 1 . 
Before it came much people ; and the whole 
Parted in seven quires. One sense cried " Nay," 
Another, "Yes, they sing." Like doubt arose 
Betwixt the eye and smell, from the curl'd fume 
Of incense breathing up the well-wrought toil. 
Preceding 2 the blest vessel, onward came 
With light dance leaping, girt in humble guise, 
Israel's sweet harper: in that hap he seenrd 
Less, and yet more, than kingly. Opposite, 
At a great palace, from the lattice forth 
Look'd Michol, like a lady full of scorn 
And sorrow. To behold the tablet next, 
Which, at the back of Michol, whitely shone, 
I moved me. There, was storied on the rock 
The exalted glory of the Roman prince, 
Whose mighty worth moved Gregory 3 to earn 
His mighty conquest, Trajan the Emperor 4 . 

(Michael Angelo's) design in the sacristy of St. Giov. Lateran." Fuseli, Lec- 
ture iii. note. 1 That from unbidden office awes mankind.] " And when 
They came toNachon'stm*eshing-noor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of 
God, and took hold of it ; for the oxen shook it." "And the anger of the Lord 
was kindled against Uzzah ; and God smote him there for his error ; and there 
he died by the ark of God." 2 Sa?n. c. vi. 7. 2 Preceding.] " And 
David danced before the Lord with all his might ; and David was girded 
Mith a linen ephod." 2 Sam. vi. 14. 3 Gregory.] St. Gregory's prayers 
are said to have delivered Trajan from hell. See Paradise, Canto xx. 40. 
4 Trajan the Emperor.] For this story, Landino refers to two writers, whom 
he calls " Helinando," of France, by whom he means Elinahd, a monk and 

Q 2 



(228) 



THE VISION. 



70—97, 



A widow at his bridle stood, attired 

In tears and mourning. Round about them troop'd 

Full throng of knights ; and overhead in gold 

The eagles floated 1 , struggling with the wind. 

The wretch appear'd amid all these to say : 

" Grant vengeance, Sire ! for, woe beshrew this heart. 

My son is murder'd." He replying seem' d : 

" TVait now till I return." And she, as one 

Made hasty by her grief : u Sire ! if thou 

Dost not return ?" — "'Where I am, who then is, 

May right thee." — "What to thee is other's good. 

If thou neglect thy own ?" — " Xow comfort thee ;" 

At length he answers. " It beseemeth well 

My duty be perform'd, ere I move hence : 

So justice wills ; and pity bids me stay." 

He, whose ken nothing new surveys, produced 
That visible speaking, new to us and strange, 
The like not found on earth. Fondly I gazed 
Upon those patterns of meek humbleness, 
Shapes yet more precious for their artist's sake ; 
When "Lo !" the poet whisper'd, " where this way 
(But slack their pace) a multitude advance. 
These to the lofty steps shall guide us on." 

Mine eyes, though bent on view of novel sights, 
Their loved allurement, were not slow to turn. 

Reader ! I would not that amazed thou miss 
Of thy good purpose, hearing how just God 
Decrees our debts be canceFd. Ponder 2 not 



chronicler, in the reign of Philip Augustus, and " Polyerato," of England, 
by whom is meant John of Salisbury, author of the Polycratieus de Curi- 
aliuni Xugis. in the twelfth century. The passage in the text I find nearly 
a translation from, that work. Kb. v. c. 8. The original appears to be in Dio 
Gassius, where it is told of the Emperor Hadrian, lib . lxix. duiXm yywziiros, 
k. t. \. " when a woman appeared to him with a suit, as he was on a journey, 
at first he answered her, ' I have no leisure ; ' but she crying out to him, 
'then reign no longer,' he turned about, and heard her cause." Lombardi 
refers also to Johannes Diaconus. Vita S. Gregor. lib. ii. cap. 44; the 
Euchology of the Greeks, cap. 96 : and St. Thomas Aquinas Supplem. 
Qua?st. 73, art. 5 ad 5. Compare Fazio degli ITberti. Dittamondo, lib. ii. 
cap. 6. 1 The eagles floated.'] See Pertieari's Letter on this passage. 
Opere, vol. iii. p. 552. Ed. Bol. 1S23. The eagles were of metal ; not worked 
on a standard, as Villain supposed. 2 Ponder.'] This is. in truth, an un- 
answerable objection to the doctrine of Purgatory. It is difficult to conceive 
how the best can meet death without horror, if they believe it must be fol- 



98—118. PURGATORY, Canto X. (229) 

The form of suffering. Think on what succeeds: 

Think that, at worst, beyond the mighty doom 

It cannot pass. "Instructor!" I began, 

" "What I see hither tending, bears no trace 

Of human semblance, nor of aught beside 

That my foil'd sight can guess." He answering thus : 

" So courb'd to earth, beneath their heavy terms 

Of torment stoop they, that mine eye at first 

Struggled as thine. But look intently thither; 

And disentangle with thy labouring view, 

What, underneath those stones, approacheth : now, 

E'en now, mayst thou discern the pangs of each." 

Christians and proud ! O poor and wretched ones ! 
That, feeble in the mind's eye, lean your trust 
Upon unstaid perverseness : know ye not 
That we are worms, yet made at last to form 
The winged insect J , imp'd with angel plumes, 
That to heaven's justice unobstructed soars ? 
Why buoy ye up aloft your unfledged souls ? 
Abortive 2 then and shapeless ye remain, 
Like the untimely embryon of a worm. 

lowed by immediate and intense suffering. l The winged i?isect.] L'an- 
gelica farfalla. The butterfly was an ancient and well-known symbol of the 
human soul. Venturi cites some lines from the Canzoni Anacreontiche of 
Magalotti, in winch this passage is imitated. 2 Abortive.] The word in 
the original is entomata. Some critics, and Salvini amongst the rest, have 
supposed that Dante, finding in a vocabulary the Greek word IvTOfia with 
the article to. placed after it to denote its gender, mistook them for one 
word. From this error he is well exculpated by Rosa Morando in a passage 
quoted by Lombardi from the Osserv. Parad. III. where it is shown that 
the Italian word is formed, for the sake of the verse, in analogy with some 
others used by our Poet ; and that Redi himself, an excellent Greek scholar 
and a very accurate writer, has even in prose, where such licences are less 
allowable, thus lengthened it. It may be considered as some proof of our 
author's acquaintance with the Greek language, that in the Convito, p. 26, 
he finds fault with the version of Aristotle's Ethics made by Taddeo d' Alde- 
rotto, the Florentine physician ; and that in the treatise de Monarchia, Kb. i. 
p. 110, he quotes a Greek word from Aristotle himself. On the other hand, 
he speaks of a passage in the same writer being doubtful, on account of its 
being differently interpreted in two different translations, a new and an old 
one, Convito, p. 75. And for the word " autentin," he refers to a vocabu- 
lary compiled by Uguccione Bentivegna of Pisa, a MS. that is, perhaps, still 
remaining, as Cinehi, in his MS. history of Tuscan writers referred to by 
Biscioni in the notes on the Convito, p. 142, speaks of it as being preserved 
in the library of S. Francesco at Cesena. After all, Dante's knowledge of 
Greek must remain as questionable as Shakspeare's of that language and of 
Latin. 



(230) THE VISION. 119—128. 

As, to support 1 incumbent floor or roof, 
For corbel, is a figure sometimes seen, 
That crumples up its knees unto its breast ; 
With the feign'd posture, stirring ruth unfeign'd 
In the beholder's fancy ; so I saw 
These fashion'd, when I noted well their guise. 

Each, as his back was laden, came indeed 
Or more or less contracted ; and it seem'd 
As he, who show'd most patience in his look, 
Wailing exclaim'd : "I can endure no more." 



CANTO XL 



ARGUMENT. 

After a prayer uttered by the spirits, who were spoken of in the last Canto, 
Yirgil inquires the way upwards, and is answered by one, who declares 
himself to have been Omberto, son of the Count of Santafiore. Next our 
Poet distinguishes Oderigi, the illuminator, who discourses on the vanity 
of worldly fame, and points out to him the soul of Provenzano Salvani. 

" thou Almighty Father 2 ! who dost make 

The heavens thy dwelling, not in bounds confined, 

But that, with love intenser, there thou view'st 

Thy primal effluence ; hallow'd be thy name : 

Join, each created being, to extol 

Thy might ; for worthy humblest thanks and praise 

Is thy blest Spirit. May thy kingdom's peace 

Come unto us ; for we, unless it come, 

With all our striving, thither tend in vain. 

As, of their will, the angels unto thee 

Tender meet sacrifice, circling thy throne 

With loud hosannas ; so of their's be done 

By saintly men on earth. Grant us, this day, 

Our daily manna, without which he roams 

1 As, to support.] Chillingworth, cap. vi. § 54, speaks of " those crouch- 
ing anticks, which seem in great buildings to labour under the weight they 
bear." And Lord Shaftesbury has a similar illustration in his Essay on 
Wit and Humour, p. 4. § 3. 

2 O thou Almighty Father^ The first four lines are borrowed by Pulci, 
Morg. Magg. c. vi. Dante, in his ' Credo,' has again versified the Lord's 
Prayer, if, indeed, the ' Credo ' be Dante's, which some have doubted ; and 
in the preface to Allacci's Collection it is ascribed to Antonio di Ferrara. 



15—51. PURGATORY, Canto XI. (231) 

Through this rough desert retrogade, who most 

Toils to advance his steps. As we to each 

Pardon the evil done us, pardon thou 

Benign, and of our merit take no count. 

'Gainst the old adversary, prove thou not 

Our virtue, easily subdued ; but free 

From his incitements, and defeat his wiles. 

This last petition, dearest Lord ! is made 

Not for ourselves ; since that were needless now ; 

But for their sakes who after us remain.' , 

Thus for themselves and us good speed imploring, 
Those spirits went beneath a weight like that 
We sometimes feel in dreams ; all, sore beset, 
But with unequal anguish ; wearied all ; 
Bound the first circuit ; purging as they go 
The world's gross darkness off. In our behoof 
If their vows still be offer'd, what can here 
For them be vow'd and done by such, whose wills 
Have root of goodness in them 1 ? Well beseems 
That we should help them wash away the stains 
They carried hence ; that so, made pure and light, 
They may spring upward to the starry spheres. 

" Ah ! so may mer cy- temper' d justice rid 
Your burdens speedily ; that ye have power 
To stretch your wing, which e'en to your desire 
Shall lift you ; as ye show us on which hand 
Toward the ladder leads the shortest way. 
And if there be more passages than one, 
Instruct us of that easiest to ascend : 
For this man, who comes with me, and bears yet 
The charge of fleshly raiment Adam left him, 
Despite his better will, but slowly mounts." 
From whom the answer came unto these words, 
Which my guide spake, appear'd not; but 'twas said: 
" Along the bank to rightward come with us ; 
And ye shall find a pass that mocks not toil 
Of living man to climb : and were it not 

1 Such, whose wills 



Have root of goodness in them.] The Poet has before told us, that 
there are no others on earth whose prayers avail to shorten the pains of those 
who are in Purgatory. 



(232) THE VISION. 52—87. 

That I am hinder'd by the rock, wherewith 

This arrogant neck is tamed, whence needs I stoop 

My visage to the ground ; him, who yet lives, 

Whose name thou speak'st not, him I fain would view ; 

To mark if e'er I knew him, and to crave 

His pity for the fardel that I bear. 

I was of Latium 1 ; of a Tuscan born, 

A mighty one: Aldobrandesco's name, 

My sire's, I know not if ye e'er have heard. 

My old blood and forefathers' gallant deeds 

Made me so haughty, that I clean forgot 

The common mother ; and to such excess 

Wax'd in my scorn of all men, that I fell, 

Fell therefore ; by what fate, Sienna's sons, 

Each child in Campagnatico, can tell. 

I am Omberto : not me, only, pride 

Hath injured, but my kindred all involved 

In mischief with her. Here my lot ordains 

Under this weight to groan, till I appease 

God's angry justice, since I did it not 

Amongst the living, here amongst the dead." 

Listening I bent my visage down : and one 
(Not he who spake) twisted beneath the weight 
That urged him, saw me, knew me straight, and call'd ; 
Holding his eyes with difficultly fix'd 
Intent upon me, stooping as I went 
Companion of their way. " O !" I exclaim'd, 
"Art thou not Oderigi 2 ? art not thou 
Agobbio's glory, glory of that art 
Which they of Paris call the limner's skill?" 

"Brother!" said he, "with tints, that gayer smile. 
Bolognian Franco's 3 pencil lines the leaves. 
His all the honour now; my light obscured. 
In truth, I had not been thus courteous to him 
The whilst I lived, through eagerness of zeal 
For that pre-eminence my heart was bent on. 

1 I was of Latium.] Omberto, the son of Guglielmo Aldobrandesco, 
Count of Santaftore, in the territory of Sienna. His arrogance provoked his 
countrymen to such a pitch of fury against him, that he was murdered by 
them at Campagnatico. ~ Oderigi.'] The illuminator, or miniature 

painter, a friend of Giotto and Dante. 3 Bolognian Franco.] Franco of 
Bologna, who is said to have been a pupil of Oderigi's. 



88—96. PURGATORY, Canto XL (233) 

Here, of such pride, the forfeiture is paid 1 . 

Nor were I even here, if, able still 

To sin, I had not turn'd me unto God. 

O powers of man ! how vain your glory, nipt 

E'en in its height of verdure, if an age 

Less bright succeed not 2 . Cimabue 3 thought 

To lord it over painting's field ; and now 

The cry is Giotto's 4 , and his name eclipsed. 

Thus hath one Guido from the other 5 snatch'd 

1 The forfeiture is paid.] Di tal superbia qui si paga il no. 
So in the Inferno, e. xxvii. 135. in che si paga il fio. 

And Ariosto, Orl. Fur. c. xxii. 59. Prestate old, che qui si paga il fio. 

2 If an age 

Less bright succeed not.] If a generation of men do not follow, among 
whom none exceeds or equals those who have immediately preceded them. 
" Etati grosse ; " to which Volpi remarks a similar expression in Boileau. 

Villon sut le premier, dans ces siecles grossiers, 

Debrouiller Fart confus de nos vieux romanciers. Art Poetique, ch. i. 

3 Cimabue.] Giovanni Cimabue, the restorer of painting, was born at 
Florence, of a noble family, in 1240, and died in 1300. The passage in the 
text is an allusion to his epitaph. 

Credidit ut Cimabos picturse castra tenere, 
Sic tenuit vivens : nunc tenet astra poli. 

4 The cry is Giotto's.] In Giotto we have a proof at how early a period 
the fine arts were encouraged in Italy. His talents were discovered by 
Cimabue, while he was tending sheep for his father in the neighbourhood of 
Florence, and he was afterwards patronized by Pope Benedict XI. and 
Robert King of Naples; and enjoyed the society and friendship of Dante, 
whose likeness he has transmitted to posterity. He died in 1336, at the age 
of 60. 5 One Guido from the other.] Guido Cavalcanti, the friend of our 
Poet, (see Hell, Canto x. 59,) had eclipsed the literary fame of Guido Guini- 
celli, of a noble family in Bologna, whom we shall meet with in the twenty- 
sixth Canto, and of whom frequent and honourable mention is made by our 
Poet in his treatise de Vulg. Eloq. Guinicelli died in 1276, as is proved by 
Fantuzzi, on the Bolognian writers, torn. iv. p. 345. See Mr. Mathias's 
Tiraboschi, torn. i. p. 110. There are more of Guinicelli's poems to be found 
iu Allacci's Collection, than Tiraboschi, who tells us he had not seen it, sup- 
posed. From these I have selected two which appear to me singularly 
pathetic. It must however be observed that the former of them is attributed 
in the Vatican MS. 3213, to Cino da Pistoia, as Bottari informs us in the 
notes to Lettere di Fra Guittone d'Arezzo, p. 171. Many of" Cavalcanti's 
writings, hitherto in MS. are said to be publishing at Florence. See Esprit des 
Journaux, Jan. 1813. [They were edited there in that year, but not for sale, 
by Antonio Cicciaporci, as I learn from Gamba's Testi di Lingua Ital. 272.] 

Noi provamo ch' in questo cieco mondo 
Ciascun si vive in angosciosa doglia, 
Ch' in onni awersita ventura '1 tira. 
Beata 1' alma che lassa tal pondo. 
E va nel ciel, dove e compita zoglia, 
Zoglioso cor far de corrotto e dira. 
Or dunque di chel vostro cor sospira 



(234) THE VISION. 97, 98. 

The lettered prize : and he, perhaps, is born ] , 
Who shall drive either from their nest. The noise 

Che rallegrar si de del suo migliore, 

Che Dio, nostro signore, 

Volse di lei, come avea 1' angel detto, 

Fare il ciel perfetto. 

Per nuova cosa ogni santo la mira : 

Ed ella sta d'avante alia salute ; 

Ed in ver lei parla ogni vertute. Attacci, Ediz. Napoli, 1681, p. 378. 

By proof, in this blind mortal world, we know, 

That each one lives in grief and sore annoy ; 

Such ceaseless strife of fortune we sustain. 

Blessed the soul, that leaves this Aveight below, 

And goes its way to heaven, where it hath joy 

Entire, without a touch of wrath or pain. 

Now then what reason hath thy heart to sigh, 

That should be glad, as for desire fulfill' d, 

That God, our Sovereign, will'd 

She, as He told His angel, should be given 

To bless and perfect heaven ? 

Each saint looks on her with admiring eye ; 

And she stands ever in salvation's sight ; 

And every virtue bends on her its light. 

Conforto gia conforto l'amor chiama, 

E pieta prega per Dio, fatti resto ; 

Or v* inchinate a si dolce preghiera ; 

Spogliatevi di questa vesta grama, 

Da che voi sete per ragion richiesto. 

Che l'uomo per dolor more e dispera. 

Con voi vedeste poi la bella ciera. 

Se y' accogiiesse morte in disperanza, 

De si grave pesanza 

Traete il vostro cor ormai per Dio, 

Che non sia cosi rio 

Ver l'alma vostra che ancora spiera 

Vederla in ciel e star nelle sue braccia, 

Dunque spene de confortar vi piaccia. 

Allacci,Ediz. Napoli, 1661, p. 380. 
" Comfort thee, comfort thee," exclaimeth Love ; 
And Pity by thy God adjures thee " rest : " 
Oh then incline ye to such gentle prayer ; 
Nor Reason's plea should ineffectual prove, 
Who bids ye lay aside this dismal vest : 
For man meets death through sadness and despair. 
Amongst you ye have seen a face so fair : 
Be this in mortal mourning some relief. 
And, for more balm of grief, 
Rescue thy spirit from its heavy load, 
Remembering thy God ; 

And that in heaven thou hopest again to share 
In sight of her, and with thine arms to fold : 
Hope then ; nor of this comfort quit thy hold. 

1 For note, see p. 236. 



99, 100. PURGATORY, Canto XL (235) 

Of worldly fame is but a blast of wind, 

That blows from diverse points, and shifts its name, 

To these I will add a sonnet by the same writer, from the poems printed 
with the Bella Mano of Giusto de' Conti. Ediz. 1715, p. 167. 
Io vo dal Ter la mia donna laudare, 

E rassembrarla alia rosa, ed al giglio. 

Piii che stella Diana splende, e pare, 

Cio che lassu e bello a lei somigho. 
Verdi rivere a lei rassembro, Tare, 

Tutto color di porpora, e vermiglio, 

Oro, ed argento, e ricche gioie preclare ; 

Medesmo amor per lei rarnna miglio. 
Passa per via adorna, e si gentile, 

Cui bassa orgoglio, a cui dona salute, 

E fal di nostra fe, se non la crede. 
E non le pud appressare, uom che sia Tile, 

Ancor ve ne diro maggior vertute, 

Nullo uom puo mal pensar finche la vede. 
I would from truth my lady's praise supply, 

Resembling her to lily and to rose ; 

Brighter than morning's lucid star she shows, 

And fair as that which fairest is on high. 
To the blue wave, I liken her, and sky, 

All colour that with pink and crimson glows, 

Gold, silver and rich stones : nay lovelier grows 

E'en love himself, when she is standing by. 
She passeth on so gracious and so mild, 

One's pride is quench'd, and one of sick is well : 

And they believe, who from the faith did err ; 
And none may near her come by harm defiled. 

A mightier virtue have I yet to tell ; 

No man may think of evil, seeing her. 

The two following sonnets of Guido Cavalcanti may enable the reader to 
form some judgment whether Dante had sufficient reason for preferring him 
to his predecessor Guinicelli. 

Io temo che la mia disawentura 

Non faccia si ch' io dico io mi dispero, 
Pero ch' io sento nel cor un pensero, 
Che fa tremar la mente di paura. 
E par ch' ei dica : Amor non t'assicura 
In guisa che tu possa di leggiero 
Alia tua donna si contare ll vero, 
Che morte non ti ponga in sua figura. 
Delia gran doglia, che l'anima sente, 
Si parte dallo core un tal sospiro 
Che va dicendo : spiritei fuggite ; 
Allor null' uom, che sia pietoso, miro ; 
Che consolasse mia vita dolente, 
Dicendo : spiritei non vi partite. 

Anecdota Literaria ex MSS. Codicibus eruta. 
Ediz. Roma, (no year,) t. iii. p. 452. 
I fear lest my mischance may so prevail, 
That it may make me of myself despair. 
For, my heart searching. I discover there 



(236) THE VISION. 101—107. 

Shifting the point it blows from. Shalt thou more 

Live in the mouths of mankind, if thy flesh 

Part shrivel'd from thee, than if thou hadst died 

Before the coral and the pap were left ; 

Or ere some thousand years have past ? and that 

Is, to eternity compared, a space 

Briefer than is the twinkling of an eye 

A thought that makes the mind with terror quail. 
It says, nieseerieth, " Lore shall not avail 

To strengthen thee so much, that thou shalt dare 

Tell her, thou lovest, thy passion or thy prayer, 

To save from power of death thy visage pale." 
Through the dread sorrow that o'erwhelms my soul, 

There issues from my bosom such a sigh, 
■ As passeth, crying ; " Spirits, flee away." 
And then, when I am fainting in my dole, 

No man so merciful there standeth by, 

To comfort me, and answer, " Spirits, stay." 
Belta di donna, e di saccente core, 

E cavalieri armati, che sian genti, . 

Cantar d'augelli, e ragionar d'amore, 

Adorni legni in mar, forti e correnti : 
Aria serena, quando appar l'albore, 

E bianca neve scender senza venti, 

Rivera d'acqua, e prato d'ogni fiore, 

Oro, e argento, azurro in ornament! : 
Cio che puo la beltate, e la valenza 

Delia mia donna in suo gentil coraggio, 

Par che rassembra vile a chi cio guar da. 
E tanto ha piu d'ogni altra conoscenza, 

Quanto lo Ciel di questa terra e maggio, 

A simil di natura ben non tarda. 

La Bella Mono e Rime Antiche, Ediz. Fir. 1715. p. 12S. 

AVhatso is fail* in lady's face or mind, 

And gentle knights caparison' d and gay, 
Singing of sweet birds unto love inclined, 

And gallant barks that cut the watery way ; 
The white snow falling without any wind, 
The cloudless sky at break of early day, 
The crystal stream, with flowers the meadow lined. 

Silver, and gold, and azure for array : 
To him that sees the beauty and the worth 

Whose power doth meet and in my lady dwell, 
All seem as vile, their price and lustre gone. 
And, as the heaven is higher than the earth, 
So she in knowledge doth each one excel. 
Not slow to good in nature like her own. 
1 He, perhaps, is born.] Some imagine, with much probability, that 
Dante here augurs the greatness of his own poetical reputation. Others 
have absurdly fancied that he prophesies the glory of Petrarch. But Pe- 
trarch was not yet born. Lombardi doubts whether it is not spoken gener- 
ally of human vicissitudes. 



108—136. PURGATORY, Canto XI. (237) 

To the heaven's slowest orb. He there, who treads 

So leisurely before me, far and wide 

Through Tuscany resounded once ; and now 

Is in Sienna scarce with whispers named : 

There was he sovereign, when destruction caught 

The maddening rage of Florence, in that day 

Proud as she now is loathsome. Your renown 

Is as the herb, whose hue doth come and go ; 

And his might withers it, by whom it sprang 

Crude from the lap of earth." I thus to him : 

" True are thy sayings : to my heart they breathe 

The kindly spirit of meekness, and allay 

What tumours l rankle there. But who is he, 

Of whom thou spakest but now?" " This," he replied, 

" Is Provenzano. He is here, because 

He reach' d, with grasp presumptuous, at the sway 

Of all Sienna. Thus he still hath gone, 

Thus goeth never-resting, since he died. 

Such is the acquittance render'd back of him, 

Who, in the mortal life, too\nuch hath dared." 

I then : "If soul, that to life's verge delays 

Repentance, linger in that lower space, 

Nor hither mount, (unless good prayers befriend,) 

Or ever 2 time, long as it lived, be past ; 

How chanced admittance was vouchsafed to him ? " 

" When at his glory's topmost height," said he, 
" Respect of dignity all cast aside, 
Freely he fix'd him on Sienna's plain, 
A suitor 3 to redeem his suffering friend, 

1 What honours."] Apt words have power to swage 

The tumours of a troubled mind. 

Milton's Samson Agonist es. 

2 Or ever.] This line was omitted in the former editions, as Mr. Lyell 
has pointed out to me. 3 A suitor.] Proyenzano Salvani humbled him- 
self so far for the sake of one of his friends, who was detained in captivity by 
Charles I. of Sicily, as personally to supplicate the people of Sienna to con- 
tribute the sum required by the king for his ransom : and this act of self- 
abasement atoned for his general ambition and pride. He fell in the battle 
of Vald 'Elsa, wherein the Florentines discomfited the Siennese in June, 
1269. G. Villain relates some curious particulars of his fate. " Messer 
Provenzano Salvani, the lord and conductor of the army, was taken, and his 
head cut off and carried through all the camp fixed upon a lance. And well 
was accomplished the prophecy and revelation made to him by the Devil by 
way of witchcraft, but he understood it not ; for having compelled him to 



(238) THE VISION. 137—142. 

"Who languished in the prison-house of Charles : 

Xor, for his sake, refused through every vein 

To tremble. More I will not say ; and dark, 

I know, my words are ; but thy neighbours soon l 

Shall help thee to a comment on the text. 

This is the work, that from these limits freed him. 5 * 



CANTO XII. 



ARGUMENT. 

Dante being desired by Virgil to look down on the gronnd which they are 
treading, observes that it is wrought oxer with imagery exhibiting various 
instances of pride recorded in history and fable. They leave the first cor* 
nice, and are ushered to the next by an angel who points out the way. 

"With equal pace, as oxen in the yoke, 
I, with that laden spirit, journey'd on, 
Long as the mild instructor suffer' d me : 
But, when he bade me quit him, and proceed, 
(For " Here," said he, " behoves with sail and oar? 
Each man, as best he may, push on his bark," ) 
Upright, as one disposed for speed, I raised 
My body, still in thought submissive bow ? d. 

I now my leader's track not loth pursued ; 
And each had shown how light we fared along, 
When thus he warned me : "Bend thine eyesight down: 
For thou, to ease the way, shalt find it good 
To ruminate the bed beneath thy feet." 

As, in memorial of the buried, drawn 
Upon earth-level tombs, the sculptured form 
Of what was once, appears, (at sight whereof 
Tears often stream forth, by remembrance waked, 
Whose sacred stings the piteous often feel,) 
So saw I there, but with more curious skill 

answer how he should succeed in the said engagement, he told him lyingiy : 
1 Thou shalt go, fight, conquer not, die in the battle, and thy head shall be 
the highest in the camp. 3 And he thought to have the victory, and from 
these words thought to remain master of ali, and noted not the fallacy, 
where he said •' conquer not. die.' And therefore it is great folly to trust 
such counsel as that of the Devil." Lib. vii. cap. xxxi. 

1 Thy neighbours soon.'] " Thou wilt know in the time of thy banishment, 
which is near at hand, what it is to solicit favours of others, and ' tremble 
through every vein,' lest they should be refused thee." 



20—50. PURGATORY, Canto XII. (239) 

Of portraiture o'er wrought, whate'er of space 
From forth the mountain stretches. On one part 
Him I beheld, above all creatures erst 
Created noblest, lightening fall from heaven : 
On the other side, with bolt celestial pierced, 
Briareus ; cumbering earth he lay, through dint 
Of mortal ice-stroke. The Thyrnbrsean god l , 
"With Mars 2 , I saw, and Pallas, round their sire, 
Arni'd still, and gazing on the giants' limbs 
Strewn o'er the ethereal field. Nimrod I saw : 
At foot of the stupendous work he stood, 
As if bewilder'd, looking on the crowd 
Leagued in his proud attempt on Sennaar's plain 3 . 

O Xiobe ! in what a trance of woe 
Thee I beheld, upon that highway drawn, 
Seven sons on either side thee slain. O Saul ! 
How ghastly didst thou look, on thine own sword 
Expiring, in Gilboa, from that hour 
Ne'er visited with rain from heaven, or dew. 

O fond Arachne ! thee I also saw, 
Half spider now, in anguish, crawling up 
The unfinish'd web thou weaved'st to thy bane. 

Rehoboam 4 ! here thy shape doth seem 
Louring no more defiance ; but fear-smote, 
"With none to chase him, in his chariot whirl'd. 

Was shown beside upon the solid floor, 
How dear Alcnireon 5 forced his mother rate 
That ornament, in evil hour received : 
How, in the temple, on Sennacherib 6 fell 
His sons, and how a corpse they left him there. 
Was shown the scath, and cruel mangling made 

1 The Thymbrcean god.~] Apollo. 

Si modo, quein perhibes, pater est Thymbraeus Apollo. 

Virg. Georg. iv. 323. 

2 Ma rs.~\ With such, a grace, 

Tne giants that attempted to scale heaven, 
"When they lay dead on the Phlegraean plain, 
Mars did appear to Jove. 

Beaumont and Fletcher, The Prophetess, act ii.se. 3. 
s Sennaar's plain.'] The builders such of Babel on the plain 

Of Sennaar. Milton, P. L. b. iii. 467. 

4 ORehoboam.] 1 Kings, xii. 18. b Alcmceon.] Yirg. JEil lib. yi. 44-5 ? 
and Homer, Od. xi. 325. e Sennacherib.] 2 Kings, xix. 37. 



(240) THE VISION. 51—84. 

By Tomyris 1 on Cyrus, when she cried, 

" Blood thou didst thirst for : take thy fill of blood." 

Was shown how routed in the battle fled 

The Assyrians, Holofernes 2 slain, and e'en 

The relics of the carnage. Troy I mark'd, 

In ashes and in caverns. Oh ! how fallen, 

How abject, Ilion, was thy semblance there. 

What master of the pencil or the style 3 
Had traced the shades and lines, that might have made 
The subtlest workman wonder ? Dead, the dead ; 
The living seem'd alive : with clearer view, 
His eye beheld not, who beheld the truth, 
Than mine what I did tread on, while I went 
Low bending. Now swell out, and with stiff necks 
Pass on, ye sons of Eve ! vale not your looks, 
Lest they descry the evil of your path. 

I noted not (so busied was my thought) 
How much we now had circled of the mount ; 
And of his course yet more the sun had spent ; 
When he, who with still wakeful caution went, 
Admonish' d : " Raise thou up thy head : for know 
Time is not now for slow suspense. Behold, 
That way, an angel hasting towards us. Lo, 
Where duly the sixth handmaid 4 doth return 
From service on the day. Wear thou, in look 
And gesture, seemly grace of reverent awe ; 
That gladly he may forward us aloft. 
Consider that this day ne'er dawns again." 

Time's loss he had so often warn'd me 'gainst, 
I could not miss the scope at which he aim'd. 

The goodly shape approach'd us, snowy white 
In vesture, and with visage casting streams 
Of tremulous lustre like the matin star. 
His arms he open'd, then his wings ; and spake : 

1 Tomyris.'] Caput Cyri amputatum in utrem humano sanguine repletum 
conjici Regiiia jubet cum hac exprobatione crudelitatis, Satia te, inquit, san- 
guine quern sitisti, cujusque insatiabilis semper fuisti. Justin, lib. i. cap. 8. 

2 Holofernes.] Judith, xiii. 

3 What master of the pencil or the style.] 

inimitable on earth 

By model, or by shading pencil drawn. Milton, P. L. b. iii. 509. 

4 The sixth handmaid.] Compare Canto xxii. 116. 



85—114. PURGATORY, Canto XII. (241) 

" Onward ! the steps, behold, are near ; and now 
The ascent is without difficulty gain'd." 

A scanty few are they, who, when they hear 
Such tidings, hasten. O, ye race of men ! 
Though born to soar, why suffer ye a wind 
So slight to baffle ye ? He led us on 
Where the rock parted ; here, against my front, 
Did beat his wings ; then promised I should fare 
In safety on my way. As to ascend 
That steep, upon whose brow the chapel stands l , 
(O'er Rubaconte, looking lordly down 
On the well-guided city 2 ,) up the right 
The impetuous rise is broken by the steps 
Carved in that old and simple age, when still 
The registry 3 and label rested safe ; 
Thus is the acclivity relieved, which here, 
Precipitous, from the other circuit falls : 
But, on each hand, the tall cliff presses close. 

As, entering, there we turn'd, voices, in strain 
Ineffable, sang: "Blessed 4 are the poor 
In spirit." Ah ! how far unlike to these 
The straits of hell : here songs to usher us, 
There shrieks of woe. "We climb the holy stairs : 
And lighter to myself by far I seem'd 
Than on the plain before ; whence thus I spake : 
" Say, master, of what heavy thing have I 
Been lightened ; that scarce ausht the sense of toil 
Affects me journeying ? " He in few replied : 
"When sin's broad characters 5 , that yet remain 
Upon thy temples, though well nigh effaced, 



1 The chapel stands.'] The church, of San Miniato in Florence, situated 
on a height that overlooks the Arno, where it is crossed by the bridge Ruba- 
conte, so called from. Messer Rubaconte da Mandella, of Milan, chief magis- 
trate of Florence, by whom the bridge was founded in 1237. See G. Villain, 
lib. vi. cap. xxvii. 2 The well-guided city.'] This is said ironically of Florence. 
* The registry.] In allusion to certain instances of fraud committed in 
Dante's time with respect to the public accounts and measures. See Para- 
dise, Canto xvi. 103. 4 Blessed.] " Blessed are the poor in spirit, for 
theirs is the kingdom of heaven. " Matth. v. 3. 5 Sin's broad charac- 

ters.] Of the seven P's, that denoted the same number of sins (Peccata) 
whereof he was to be cleansed (see Canto ix. 100), the first had now vanished 
in consequence of his having past the place where the sin of pride, the chief 
of them, was expiated. 



(242) THE VISION. - 12S 

Th-n shklTthvVee: bv helrtinesTof will 
Be so o'erco-me. thev not alone shall reel 
LVo sense of labour, but delight much more 

Some what ho deems not or. but from the becks 
Or others, as thev pass him by: his hand 



Lends therefore help to assure him. searches. 

"VTants power to execute: so stretching forth 
The nngers ofmy rigut hand, did I rind 
Six onlv of the letters, which his sword. 






CANTO xni. 



AEGOEE>"T. 



rec itm ..: — i~ z:.zl :.:•= cxjjzip.f? u iiir.Ty, .".hil Iti: ifiir-G. T— r f_;.:. 


f - . " : 


-'.l^. it tir fii~ " \"..s ;.;.i in fr.;^:.::.;.. im n.iv~.r.c —fir f~ r c ; ^ ""; 




with iz. irrzi tOzrii. An:ti.^st thrif- D.tntr £nis S.wij. - S:-:7_z:-t 


O-O . 


:r:zi "_i:z: :i Ir^rns tue z^use :: her Crinr thrtr. 




TTe reaeh'd the summit of the scale, ana stood 




Upon the se nd buttress of that mount 




Which healeth him who climbs. A comico theto. 




Like to the former, girdles round the hid: 




Save that its arch, with sweep less ample, bonis. 




Shadow, nor image there, is seen: all smooth 




But the rook's sullen hue.' ■• If here we wait. 




For some to question." said the bard. -I fear 




Then rixedlv uroui the sun his eves 




He fasten'd: mad} his right the central point 




From whence to move: ana turu'd the left ■ 




"0 pleasant light, nw ccnudenc- and hope! 








»» here now I venture: leaumg to toe Courn 





17 — 49. PURGATORY, Canto XIII. (243) 

We seek. The universal world to thee 
Owes warmth and lustre. If 1 no other cause 
Forbid, thy beams should ever be our guide." 

Far, as is measured for a mile on earth, 
In brief space had we journey 'd ; such prompt will 
ImpelFd ; and towards us flying, now were heard 
Spirits invisible, who courteously 
Unto love's table bade the welcome guest. 
The voice, that first flew by, call'd forth aloud, 
"They have no wine 2 ," so on behind us past, 
Those sounds reiterating, nor yet lost 
In the faint distance, when another came 
Crying, "I am Orestes 3 ," and alike 
Wing'd its fleet way. " O father !" I exclaim'd, 
"What tongues are these ?" and as I question'd, lo ! 
A third exclaiming, "Love ye those have wrong'd you 4 ." 

"This circuit," said my teacher, "knots the scourge 5 
For envy ; and the cords are therefore drawn 
By charity's correcting hand. The curb 
Is of a harsher sound ; as thou shalt hear 
(If I deem rightly) ere thou reach the pass, 
Where pardon sets them free. But fix thine eyes 
Intently through the air ; and thou shalt see 
A multitude before thee seated, each 
Along the shelving grot." Then more than erst 
I oped mine eyes ; before me view'd ; and saw 
Shadows with garments dark as was the rock ; 
And when we pass'd a little forth, I heard 
A crying, " Blessed Mary ! pray for us, 
Michael and Peter ! all ye saintly host ! " 

I do not think there walks on earth this day 
Man so remorseless, that he had not yearn'd 
With pity at the sight that next I saw. 

1 If] " Unless there "be some urgent necessity for traveling by night, the 
day-light should be preferred for that purpose." 2 They have no wine.] 
John ii. 3. These words of the Virgin are referred to as an instance of 
charity. 3 Orestes.'] Alluding to his friendship with Pylades. 4 Love 
ye those have wrong'd you.] " But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless 
them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them 
which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Matt. v. 44. 5 The scourge.] 
" The chastisement of envy consists in hearing examples of the opposite 
virtue, charity*. As a curb and restraint on this vice, you will presently 
hear very different sounds, those of threatening and punishment." 

B 2 



1244) THE VISION. 50— £4. 

3-line eyes a load of sorrow teem'd. when now 
I stood so near them, that their semblances 
Came clearly to my view. Of sackcloth vile 
Their covering seem'd : and. on his shoulder, one 
Did stay another, leaning : and all lean'd 
Against the cliff. E'en thus the blind and poor. 
Near the confessionals, to crave an alms. 
Stand, each his head upon his fellow's sunk : 
So most to stir compassion, not by sound 
Ox words alone, but that which moves not less. 
The sight of misery. And as never beam 
Of noon-day visiteth the eyeless man. 
E'en so was heaven a niggard unto these 
Of his fair light : for. through the orbs of all. 
A thread of wire, impiercin^'. knits them up. 
As for the taming of a haggard hawk. 

It were a wrong, methoughr. to pass and look 
On others, yet myself the while unseen. 
To my sage counsel therefor- did I turn. 
He knew the meaning of the mute appeal. 
Nor waited tor mv questioning, but said : 
" Speak: and be brief, be subtile in thy words." 

On that part of the cornice, whence no rim 
Engarlands its steep fall, did Virgil come : 
On the other side me were the spirits, their cheeks 
Bathing devout with penitential tears. 
That through the dread impalement forced a way, 

I turn'd me to them, and ■■' shades!" said I. 
"Assured that to your eyes unveil' d shall shine 
The lofty light, sole object of your wish, 
So may heaven's grace 1 clear whatsoe'er of foam 
Eloats turbid on the conscience, that thenceforth 
The stream of mind roll limpid from its source : 
As ye declare (for so shall ye impart 
A boon I dearly prize') if any soul 

: 5, .:■.■;•■;' 5 r-.7;r'.] Se :;s::> grille ris:>;i L;- s/iiume 



ye 5h.aIIkii.0-sv orthe d.-: Trine." Jhdm. vii. 17. 



85—116. PURGATORY, Canto XIII. (245) 

Of Latium dwell among ye : and perchance 
That soul may profit, if I learn so much." 

" My brother! we are, each one, citizens 
Of one true city 1 . Any, thou wouldst say, 
Who lived a stranger in Italia's land." 

So heard I answering, as appear'd, a voice 
That onward came some space from whence I stood. 

A spirit I noted, in whose look was mark'd 
Expectance. Ask ye how? The chin was raised 
As in one reft of sight. " Spirit," said I, 
u Who for thy rise art tutoring, (if thou be 
That which didst answer to me,) or by place, 
Or name, disclose thyself, that I may know thee." 

" I was," it answer'd, " of Sienna: here 
I cleanse away with these the evil life, 
Soliciting with tears that He, who is, 
Vouchsafe him to us. Though Sapia 2 named, 
In sapience I excelTd not ; gladder far 
Of other's hurt, than of the good befel me. 
That thou mayst own I now deceive thee not, 
Hear, if my folly were not as I speak it. 
When now my years sloped waning down the arch, 
It so bechanced, my fellow-citizens 
Near Colle met their enemies in the field; 
And I pray'd God to grant what He had will'd 3 . 
There were they vanquish'd, and betook themselves 
Unto the bitter passages of flight. 
I mark'd the hunt; and waxing out of bounds 
In gladness, lifted up my shameless brow, 
And, like the merlin 4 cheated by a gleam, 
Cried, ' It is over. Heaven ! I fear thee not.' 
Upon my verge of life I wish'd for peace 



Citizens 



Of one true city.] " For here we have no, continuing city, but we seek 
one to come." Heb. xiii. 14. 2 Sapia.] A lady of Sienna, who living in 

exile at Colle, was so overjoyed at a defeat which her countrymen sustained 
near that place, that she declared nothing more was wanting to make her 
die contented. The Latin annotator on the Monte Casino MS. says of this 
lady : " fuit uxor D. Cinii de Pigezo de Senis." 3 And I pray'd God to 
grant what He had xcilVd.] That her countrymen should be defeated in 
battle. 4 The merlin.] The story of the merlin is, that having been in- 
duced by a gleam of fine weather in the winter to escape from his master, he 
was soon oppressed by the rigour of the season. 



(246) THE VISION. 117—145. 

With God ; nor yet repentance had supplied 

What I did lack of duty, were it not 

The hermit Piero l -, touch'd with charity, 

In his devout oraisons thought on me. 

But w T ho art thou that question's t of our state, 

Who go'st, as I believe, with lids unclosed, 

And breathest in thy talk ?" — "Mine eyes," said I, 

" May yet be here ta'en from me ; but not long ; 

For they have not offended grievously 

With envious glances. But the woe beneath 2 

Urges my soul with more exceeding dread. 

That nether load already weighs me down." 

She thus : " Who then, amongst us here aloft, 
Hath brought thee, if thou weenest to return ? " 

"He," answered I, "who standeth mute beside me. 
I live : of me ask therefore, chosen spirit ! 
If thou desire I yonder yet should move 
For thee my mortal feet." — " Oh ! " she replied, 
" This is so strange a thing, it is great sign 
That God doth love thee. Therefore with thy prayer 
Sometime assist me : and, by that I crave, 
Which most thou covetest, that if thv feet 
E'er tread on Tuscan soil, thou save my fame 
Amongst my kindred. Them shalt thou behold 
With that vain multitude 3 , who set their hope 
On Telamone's haven ; there to fail 
Confounded, more than when the fancied stream 
They sought, of Dian call'd : but they, who lead 4 
Their navies, more than ruin'd hopes shall mourn." 

1 The hermit Piero.] Piero Pettinagno, a holy hermit of Florence. 

2 The woe beneath.] Dante felt that he was much more subject to the sin 
of pride, than to that of envy ; and this is just what we should haye con- 
cluded of a mind such as his. 3 That xain multitude.] The Siennese. 
See Hell, c. xxix. 118. " Their acquisition of Telamone, a seaport on the 
confines of the Maremma, has led them to conceive hopes of becoming a 
naval power : but this scheme will prove as chimerical as their former plan 
for the discovery of a subterraneous stream under their city." Why they 
gave the appellation of Diana to the imagined stream, Venturi says he leaves 
it to the antiquaries of Sienna to conjecture. * They, icho lead.] The 
Latin note to the Monte Casino MS. informs us, that those who were to com- 
mand the fleets of the Siennese, in the event of their becoming a naval 
power, lost their lives during their employment at Telamone, through the 
pestilent air of the Maremma, which lies near that place. 



1—21. PUR GATOR Y, Canto XIV. (247) 

CANTO XIV. 



ARGUMENT. 

Our Poet on this second cornice finds also the souls of Guido del Duca of 
Brettinoro, and Rinieri da Calboli of Romagna ; the latter of whom, hear- 
ing that he comes from the banks of the Arno, inyeighs against the de- 
generacy of all those who dwell in the cities visited by that stream ; and 
the former, in like manner, against the inhabitants of Romagna. On 
leaving these, our Poets hear voices recording noted instances of envy. 

11 Say 1 , who is he around our mountain winds, 
Or ever death has pruned his wing for flight ; 
That opes his eyes, and covers them at will ? " 

"I know not who he is, but know thus much ; 
He comes not singly. Do thou ask of him, 
For thou art nearer to him ; and take heed, 
Accost him 2 gently, so that he may speak.'' 

Thus on the right two spirits, bending each 
Toward the other, talk'd of me ; then both 
Addressing me, their faces backward lean'd, 
And thus the one 3 began : " O soul, who yet 
Pent in the body, tendest towards the sky ! 
For charity, we pray thee, comfort us ; 
Recounting whence thou comest, and who thou art : 
For thou dost make us, at the favour shown thee, 
Marvel, as at a thing that ne'er hath been." 

" There stretches through the midst of Tuscany," 
I straight began, "a brooklet 4 , whose well-head 
Springs up in Falterona ; with his race 
Not satisfied, when he some hundred miles 
Hath measured. From his banks bring I this frame. 

1 Say.] The two spirits who thus speak to each other are, Guido del Duca 
of Brettinoro, and Rinieri da Calboli of Romagna. 2 Accost him.'] It is 
worthy of remark, that the Latin annotator on the Monte Casino MS. agrees 
with Landino in reading " a colo," instead of " accolo," and interprets it as 
he does : " Nil aliud vult auctor dicere de colo, nisi quod cum interroget ita 
dulciter ut respondeat (sic) eum ad colum, id est quod tantum respondeat 
auctor eis quod animus eorum remaneat in quiete et non in suspenso." 
" The author means to say, that the spirit should interrogate him courteously , 
that he may return such an answer as shall put & period to their suspense." 
Still I have retained my translation of the common reading generally sup- 
posed to be put by syncope for " accoglilo," " accost him." 3 The one.] 
Guido del Duca. i A brooklet.] The Arno, that rises in Falterona, a 

mountain in the Apennine. Its course is a hundred and twenty miles, ac- 
cording to G. Yillani, who traces it accurately. 



(248} THE VISION. 22—52. 

To tell you who I am were words mis-spent : 
For yet my Dame scarce sounds on rumour's lip. v 

" If well I do incorporate with my thought 
The meaning of thy speech," said he. who first 
Address'd me. "thou dost speak of Arno's wave." 

To whom the other 1 : "Why hath he conceal'd 
The title of that river, as a man 
Doth of some horrible thing ? " The spirit, who 
Thereof was question'd, did acquit him thus : 
" I know not : but 'tis fitting well the name 
Should perish of that vale ; for from the source 2 . 
Where teems so plenteously the Alpine steep 
Maim'd of Pelorus 3 , (that doth scarcely pass 4 
Beyond that limit, ) even to the point 
Where unto ocean is restored what heaven 
Drains from the exhaustless store for all earth's streams, 
Throughout the space is virtue worried down. 
As 't were a snake, by all, for mortal foe ; 
Or through disastrous influence on the place, 
Or else distortion of misguided wills 
That custom goads to evil : whence in those, 
The dwellers in that miserable vale, 
Nature is so transform'd, it seems as they 
Had shared of Circe's feeding. 'Midst brute swine 5 , 
Worthier of acorns than of other food 
Created for man's use, he shapeth first 
His obscure way ; then, sloping onward, finds 
Curs 6 , snarlers more in spite than power, from whom 
He turns with scorn aside : still journeying down, 
By how much more the curst and luckless foss " 

Swells out to largeness, e'en so much it finds 



1 The other.] Binieri da Calboli. 2 From the source.] '-'From the 
rise of the Arno in that 'Alpine steep,' the Apennine, from whence Pelorus 
in Sicily was torn by a convulsion of the earth, even to the point where the 
same river unites its waters to the ocean, Virtue is persecuted by all." 

3 Maim'd of Pelorus.] Virs:. iEn. lib. iii. 41-i. Lucan, Pilars, lib. ii. 438. 

A hill 

Torn from Pelorus. Milton, P. L. b. i. 232. 

* That doth scarcely pass.] "Pelorus is in few places higher than Fal- 
terona, where the Arno springs." Lombardi explains this differently, and, I 
think, erroneously. 5 'Midst brute swine.] The people of Casentino. 

6 Curs.] The Arno leaves Arezzo about four miles to the left. 

" Foss.] So in his anger he terms the Arno. 



53—87. PURGATORY, Canto XIV. (249) 

Dogs turning into wolves K Descending still 

Through yet more hollow eddies, next he meets 

A race of foxes 2 , so replete with craft, 

They do not fear that skill can master it. 

Nor will I cease because my words are heard 3 

By other ears than thine. It shall be well 

For this man 4 , if he keep in memory 

What from no erring spirit I reveal. 

Lo ! I behold thy grandson 5 , that becomes 

A hunter of those wolves, upon the shore 

Of the fierce stream ; and cows them all with dread. 

Their flesh, yet living, sets he up to sale, 

Then, like an aged beast, to slaughter dooms. 

Many of life he reaves, himself of worth 

And goodly estimation. Smear'd with gore, 

Mark how he issues from the rueful wood ; 

Leaving such havoc, that in thousand years 

It spreads not to prime lustihood again. " 

As one, who tidings hears of woe to come, 
Changes his looks perturb'd, from whate'er part 
The peril grasp him ; so beheld I change 
. That spirit, who had turn'd to listen ; struck 
With sadness, soon as he had caught the word. 

His visage, and the other's speech, did raise 
Desire in me to know the names of both ; 
Whereof, with meek entreaty, I inquired. 

The shade, who late address'd me, thus resumed : 
" Thy wish imports, that I vouchsafe to do 
For thy sake what thou wilt not do 6 for mine. 
But, since God's will is that so largely shine 
His grace in thee, I will be liberal too. 
Guido of Duca know then that I am. 
Envy so parch'd my blood, that had I seen 
A fellow man made joyous, thou hadst mark'd 
A livid paleness overspread my cheek. 

1 Wolves.] The Florentines. 2 Foxes.] The Pisans. 

3 My words are heard.'] It should be recollected that Guido still addresses 
himself to Rinieri. 4 For this man.] " For Dante, who has told us that 
he conies from the banks of Arno." 5 Thy grandson.] Fulcieri da Cal- 
boli, grandson of Rinieri da Calboli who is here spoken to. The atrocities 
predicted came to pass in 1302. See G. Yillani, lib. viii. c. lix. 6 What 
thou wilt not do.] Dante haying declined telling him. his name. See v. 22. 




(250) THE VISION. 88- 107. 

Such harvest reap I of the seed I sow'd. 

O man ! why place l thy heart where there doth need 

Exclusion of participants in good ? 

This is Rinieri 5 s spirit ; this, the boast 

And honour of the house of Calboli ; 

Where of his worth no heritage remains. 

Nor his the only blood, that hath been stript 

('Twixt Po, the mount, the Reno, and the shore 2 ) 

Of all that truth or fancy 3 asks for bliss : 

But, in those limits, such a growth has sprung 

Of rank and venom'd roots, as long would mock 

Slow culture's toil. Where is good Lizio 4 ? where 

Manardi, Traversaro, and Carpigna 5 ? 

O bastard slips of old Romagna's line ! 

When in Bologna the low artisan 6 , 

And in Faenza yon Bernardin 7 sprouts, 

A gentle cyon from ignoble stem. 

Wonder not, Tuscan, if thou see me weep, 

When I recal to mind those once loved names, 

Guido of Prata 8 , and of Azzo him 9 

1 Why place.] This will be explained in the ensuing Canto. 

2 ' Tioixt Po, the mount, the Reno, and the shGre.~] The boundaries of 
Romagna. 3 Fancy. ] " Trastullo." Quadrio, in the notes on the second 
of the Salmi Penitenziali of our author, understands this in a higher sense, 
as meaning that joy which results from an easy and constant practice of 
virtue. See Opere di Dante, Zatta ediz. torn. iv. part ii. p. 193. And he 
is followed by Lombardi. 4 Lizio.] Lizio da Valbona introduced into 
Boccaccio's Decameron, G. v. N. 4. 5 Manardi, Traversaro, and Car- 
pigna.] Arrigo Manardi of Faenza, or, as some say, of Brettinoro ; Pier 
Traversaro, lord of Ravenna ; and Guido di Carpigna of Montefeltro. 

6 In Bologna the low artisan.] One who had been a mechanic, named 
Lambertaccio, arrived at almost supreme power in Bologna. 

Quando in Bologna un Fabro si ralligna : 

Quando in Faenza un Bernardin di Fosco. 
The pointing and the marginal note of the Monte Casino MS. entirely change 
the sense of these two lines. There is a mark of interrogation added to 
each ; and by way of answer to both there is written, " Quasi dicat num- 
quam." Fabro is made a proper name, and it is said of him: " Iste fuit 
Dom. Faber de Lambertaciis de Bononia; " and Benvenuto da Imola calls 
him " Nobilis Miles." I have not ventured to alter the translation so as to 
make it accord with this interpretation, as it must have been done in the face, 
I believe, of nearly all the editions, and, as far as may be gathered from the 
silence of Lombardi, of the MSS. also which that commentator had consulted. 
But those, who wish to see more on the subject, are referred to Monti's Pro- 
posta, torn. iii. p te 2, under the word " RalHgnare." 7 Yon Bernardin^] 
Bernardin di Fosco, a man of low origin, but great talents, who governed at 
Faenza. 8 Prata.] A place between Faenza and Ravenna. 9 Of 
Azzo him.] Ugolino, of the Ubaldini family in Tuscany. 



108—117. PURGATORY, Canto XIV. (251) 

That dwelt with us ! ; Tignoso 2 and his troop, 

With Traversaro's house and Anasta^io's 3 , 

(Each race disherited ;) and beside these, 

The ladies 4 and the knights, the toils and ease, 

That witch'd us into love and courtesy 5 ; 

Where now such malice reigns in recreant hearts. 

O Brettinoro 6 ! wherefore tarriest still, 

Since forth of thee thy family hath gone, 

And many, hating evil, join'd their steps ? 

Well doeth he, that bids his lineage cease, 

1 With us.] Lombardi claims the reading, u nosco," instead of " vosco," 
" with ns," instead of " with yon," for his favourite edition ; but it is also in 
Landino's of 1488. 2 Tignoso.'] Federigo Tignoso of Riniini. 3 Tra- 
cersaro's house and Anastarjio's.] Two noble families of Ravenna. See v. 
100. She, to whom Dryden has given the name of Honoria, in the fable so 
admirably paraphrased from Boccaccio, was of the former : her lover and the 
spectre were of the Anastagi family. See Canto xxviii. 20. 
4 The ladies, $c.] Le donne, e i cavalier, gli affanni, e gli agi 
Che ne 'nvogliava amore e cortesia. 
These two lines express the true spirit of chivalry. " Agi " is understood, by 
the commentators whom I have consulted, to mean " the ease procured for 
others by the exertions of knight-errantry." But surely it signifies the 
alternation of ease with labour. Venturi is of opinion that the opening of 
the Orlando Furioso — 

Le donne, i cavalier, l'arme, gli amori, 
Le cortesie, l'audaci imprese io canto, 
originates in this passage. 5 Courtesy.'] " Cortesia e onestade," &c. 
Convito, p. 65. " Courtesy and honour are all one ; and because anciently 
virtue and good manners were usual in courts, as the contrary now is, this 
term was derived from thence : courtesy was as much as to say, custom of 
courts ; which word, if it were now taken from courts, especially those of 
Italy, would be no other than turpitude," " turpezza." 

Courtesy, 

Which oft is sooner found in lowly sheds 
With smoky rafters, than in tapstry halls 
And courts of princes, where it first was named, 
And yet is most pretended. Milton, Comus. 

Marino has exceeded his usual extravagance in his play on this word. 
Ma come puo vero diletto ? 6 come 
Vera quiete altrui donar la Corte ? 
Le die la Cortesia del proprio nome 
Solo il principio, il fine ha della Morte. 

Adone, c. ix. st. 77. 
6 Brettinoro.] A beautifully situated castle in Romagna, the hospitable 
residence of Guido del Duca, who is here speaking. Landino relates, that 
there were several of this family, who, when a stranger arrived amongst 
them, contended with one another by whom he should be entertained ; and 
that in order to end this dispute, they set up a pillar with as many rings as 
there were fathers of families among them, a ring being assigned to each, 
and that accordingly as a stranger on his arrival hung his horse's bridle on 
one or other of these, he became his guest to whom the ring belonged. 



(252) THE VISION. US— 141. 

Bagnaeavallo 1 : Castracaro ill, 
And Conio worse 2 , who care to propagate 
A race of Counties 3 from such blood as .theirs. 
Well shall ye also do, Pagaoi 4 , then 
TThen from amongst you hies your demon child: 
Not so. howe'er 5 , that thenceforth there remain 
True proof of what ye were. O Hugolin 6 , 
Thou sprung of Fantolini's line ! thy name 
Is safe ; since none is look T d for after thee 
To cloud its lustre, warping from thy stock. 
But. Tuscan ! go thy ways ; for now I take 
Far more delight in weeping, than in words. 
Snch 7 pity for your sakes hath wrung my heart." 
TTe knew those gentle spirits, at parting, heard 
Our steps. Their silence therefore, of our way. 
Assured us. Soon as we had quitted them. 
Advancing onward, lo ! a voice, that seem'd 
Like volley "d lightening, when it rives the air, 
Met us, and shouted, "Whosoever finds 
Will slay me V' then fled from us, as the bolt 
Lanced sudden from a downward-rushing cloud. 
When it had given short truce unto our hearing, 
Behold the other with a crash as loud 
As the quick-following thunder : " Mark in me 

1 Bagnacavaflo.] A castle between Lmola and Ravenna. 

* Castracaro ill. 

And Conk worse.] Both in Romagna. 

3 Counties.'} I have used this word here for M Counts, n as it is in Shak- 
speare. 4 Paqani.~\ The Pa^rani were lords of Faenza and lmola. One 
of them. Machinardo. was named the Demon, from his treachery. See Hell, 
Canto xxvii. 47, and note. h Xot so. koweferj] M Yet your offsprinr will 
be stained with some vice, and will not afford true proof of the worth of your 
ancestors.*' 6 HuaoJin.'] TTgolinc Ubaldini, a noble and virtnons pers::: 
in Faenza. who. on account of his age probably, was not likely to leave any 
offspring I ehind him. He is enumerated among the poets by Crescim: 
and by Tiraboschi. Mr. Mathias's edit. vol. i. p. 143; and Perticari ci: 
beautiful little poem by him in the Apologia di Dante, parte ii. c. 27. but 
with so little appearance of antiquity that nothing less than the assurance of 
so able a critic could induce one for a moment to receive it as genuine. 

SueA.] Here a^ain the Xidobeatina edition adopted by Lombardi, and 
the Monte Casino MS. differ from the common reading, and both ha~c 
Si m' ha nostra region la mente stretta. 
Our country's sorrow has so wrung my heart. 
id of Si nr ha vostra ragion, fee. 

1 Whosoever finds 

slay jne.~\ The words of Cain. Gen. iv. 14. 



142—153. PURGATORY, Canto XIV. (253) 

Aglauros 1 , turn'd to rock." I, at the sound 
Retreating, drew more closely to my guide. 

Now in mute stilness rested all the air ; 
And thus he spake : " There was the galling bit 2 , 
Which 3 should keep man within his boundary. 
But your old enemy so baits the hook, 
He drags you eager to him. Hence nor curb 
Avails you, nor reclaiming call. Heaven calls 4 , 
And, round about you wheeling, courts your gaze 
With everlasting beauties. Yet your eye 
Turns with fond doting still upon the earth. 
Therefore He smites you who discerneth all." 



CANTO XV. 



ARGUMENT. 

An angel invites them to ascend the next steep. On their way Dante sug- 
gests certain doubts, which are resolved by Yirgil ; and, when they reach 
the third cornice, where the sin of anger is purged, our Poet, in a kind of 
waking dream, beholds remarkable instances of patience ; and soon after 
they are enveloped in a dense fog. 

As much 5 as 'twixt the third hour's close and dawn, 

Appeareth of heaven's sphere, that ever whirls 

As restless as an infant in his play ; 

So much appear'd remaining to the sun 

Of his slope journey towards the western goal. 

Evening was there, and here the noon of night ; 
And full upon our forehead smote the beams. 
For round the mountain, circling, so our path 
Had led us, that toward the sun-set now 
Direct we journey'd ; when I felt a weight 
Of more exceeding splendour, than before, 

1 Aglauros.] Ovid, Met. lib. ii. fab. 12. 2 There teas the galling bit.'] 
Referring to what had been before said, Canto xiii. 3o. The commentators 
remark the unusual word " camo," which occurs here in the original ; but they 
have not observed, I believe, that Dante himself uses it in the De Monarchia, 
lib. iii. p. 155. For the Greek word yaixov see a fragment by S. Petrus Alex, 
in Routh's Reliquiae Sacrae, vol. iii. p. 342, and note. * 3 Which.] Mr. 
Darley has noticed the omission of this line in the former editions. 
4 Heaven calls.] Or ti solleva a piu beata speme, 

Mirando il ciel, che ti si volve intorno 
Immortal ed adomo. Petrarca, Canzone. I 'vo pensando. 
As much.] It wanted three hours of sunset. 



(254) THE VISION. 12—37. 

Press on my front. The cause unknown, amaze 

Possessed me ! and both hands l against my brows 

Lifting, I interposed them, as a screen, 

That of its gorgeous superflux of light 

Clips the diminish' d orb. As when the ray 2 , 

Striking on water or the surface clear 

Of mirror, leaps unto the opposite part 

Ascending at a glance 3 , e ? en as it fell, 

And as much 4 differs from the stone, that falls 

Through equal space, (so practic skill hath shown ; 

Thus, with refracted light, before me seem'd 

The ground there smitten ; whence, in sudden haste, 

My sight recoil'd. "What is this, sire beloved ! 

'Gainst which I strive to shield the sight in vain?" 

Cried I, "'and which toward us moving seems?''* 

" Marvel not, if the family of heaven,'' 
He answer'd, " yet with dazzling radiance dim 
Thy sense. It is a messenger who comes, 
Invitine man's ascent. Such sights ere lonsr, 
Not grievous, shall impart to thee delight, 
As thy perception is by nature wrought 
Up to their pitch." The blessed angel, soon 
As we had reach' d him, hail'd us with glad voice : 
" Here enter on a ladder far less steep 
Than ye have yet encounter'd." We forthwith 
Ascending, heard behind us chanted sweet, 

1 Both hands.] Raising bis hand to save the dazzled sense. 

Southey's T/w.laba, b. xii. 
g As when the ray.'] 

Sieut aqua? trenruluro. labiis ubi lumen aenis 
Sole repercussuni, aut radiantis imagine lunae, 
O mn ia perrolitat late loca, jamque sub auras 
Erigitur, suniniique ferit laquearia tecti. JEa. lib. viii. 2-5. 
Compare Apoll. Rhodius, iii. 755. 

3 Ascending at a glance.] 

Quod shnul ae priniuni sub divo splendor aquai 
Ponitur : extemplo, eo?lo stellante, serena 
Sidera respondent in aqua radiantia mundi. 
Jamne rides igitur, quam parvo tempore imago 
JEtheris ex oris ad terrarum accidat oras. 

Lucret. lib. iv. 21o. 

4 And as much.] Lombard!, I think justly, observes that this does not 
refer to the length of time which a stone is in falling to the ground, but to 
the perpendicular line which it describes when falling, as contrasted with 
the angle of incidence formed by light reflected from water or from a mirror. 



38—71. PURGATORY, Canto XV. (255) 

" Blessed the merciful 1 ," and "Happy thou, 
That conquer'st." Lonely each, my guide and I, 
Pursued our upward way ; and as we w T ent, 
Some profit from his words I hoped to win, 
And thus of him inquiring, framed my speech : 
"What meant Romagna's spirit 2 , when he spake 
Of bliss exclusive, with no partner shared?" 

He straight replied : " No wonder, since he knows 
What sorrow waits on his own worst defect, 
If he chide others, that they less may mourn. 
Because ye point your wishes at a mark, 
Where, by communion of possessors, part 
Is lessen'd, envy bloweth up men's sighs. 
No fear of that might touch ye, if the love 
Of higher sphere exalted your desire. 
For there 3 , by how much more they call it ours. 
So much propriety of each in good 
Encreases more, and heighten'd charity 
Wraps that fair cloister in a brighter flame." 

" Now lack I satisfaction more," said I, 
" Than if thou hadst been silent at the first ; 
And doubt more gathers on my labouring thought. 
How can it chance, that good distributed, 
The many, that possess it, makes more rich, 
Than if 'twere shared by few ?" He answering thus : 
" Thy mind, reverting still to things of earth, 
Strikes darkness from true light. The highest good 
Unlimited, ineffable, doth so speed 
To love, as beam to lucid body darts, 
Giving as much of ardour as it finds. 
The sempiternal effluence streams abroad, 
Spreading, wherever charity extends. 
So that the more aspirants to that bliss 
Are multiplied, more good is there to love, 

1 Blessed the merciful.'] Matt. v. 7. 2 Romagna's spirit.'] Guido del 
Duca, of Brettinoro, whom we have seen in the preceding Canto. 3 For 
there.] Landino has here cited, in addition to Seneca and Boetius, the two 
following apposite passages from Augustine and Saint Gregory : " Nulla 
modo fit minor accedente consortio possessio bonitatis, quam tanto latius 
quanto eoncordms indi vidua sociorum possidet caritas." Augustin. de Civi- 
tate Dei. " Qui facibus invidiam carere desiclerat, illam possessionem appe- 
tat, quam numerus possidentium non angustat." 



(256) THE VISION. 72—104. 

And more is loved ; as mirrors, that reflect, 
Each unto other, propagated light. 
If these my words avail not to allay 
Thy thirsting, Beatrice thou shalt see, 
Who of this want, and of all else thou hast, 
Shall rid thee to the full. Provide but thou ] , 
That from thy temples may be soon erased, 
E'en as the two already, those five scars, 
That, when they pain thee worst, then kindliest heal." 
" Thou," I had said, " content 'st me ;" when I saw 
The other round was gain'd, and wondering eyes 
Did keep me mute. There suddenly I seem'd 
By an extatic vision wrapt away ; 
And in a temple saw, methought, a crowd 
Of many persons ; and at the entrance stood 
A dame 2 , whose sweet demeanour did express 
A mother's love, who said, " Child ! why hast thou 
Dealt with us thus ? Behold thy sire and I 
Sorrowing have sought thee ;" and so held her peace ; 
And straight the vision fled. A female next 
Appear'd before me, down whose visage coursed 
Those waters, that grief forces out from one 
By deep resentment stung, who seem'd to say : 
" If thou, Pisistratus, be lord indeed 
Over this city 3 , named with such debate 
Of adverse gods, and whence each science sparkles, 
Avenge thee of those arms, whose bold embrace 
Hath clasp'd our daughter ;" and to her, meseem'd. 
Benign and meek, with visage undisturb'd, 
Her sovran spake : " How shall we those requite 4 
Who wish us evil, if we thus condemn 
The man that loves us ?" After that I saw 
A multitude, in fury burning, slay 

1 Provide but thou.] " Take heed that thou be healed of the five remain- 
ing sins, as thou already art of the two, namely, pride and envy." 

2 A dame.] Luke, ii. 48. 3 Over this city.] Athens, named after 
'A0?7i/f7, Minerva, in consequence of her having produced a more valuable 
gift for it in the olive, than Neptune had done in the horse. 4 How shall 
we those requite.] The answer of Pisistratus the tyrant to his wife, when 
she urged him to inflict the punishment of death on a young man, who, in- 
flamed with love for his daughter, had snatched a kiss from her in public. 
The story is told by Valerius Maximus, lib. v. 1. 



105—143. PURGATORY, Canto XV. (257) 

With stones a stripling youth 1 , and shout amain 
" Destroy, destroy ;" and him I saw, who bow'd 
Heavy with death unto the ground, yet made 
His eyes, unfolded upward, gates to heaven, 
Praying forgiveness of the Almighty Sire, 
Amidst that cruel conflict, on his foes, 
With looks that win compassion to their aim. 

Soon as my spirit, from her airy flight 
Returning, sought again the things whose truth 
Depends not on her shaping, I observed 
She had not roved to falsehood in her dreams. 

Meanwhile the leader, who might see I moved 
As one who struggles to shake off his sleep, 
Exclaim'd : " What ails thee, that thou canst not hold 
Thy footing firm ; but more than half a league 
Hast travel'd with closed eyes and tottering gait, 
Like to a man by wine or sleep o'ercharged ? " 

" Beloved father ! so thou deign," said I, 
" To listen, I will tell thee what appear' d 
Before me, when so fail'd my sinking steps." 

He thus : " Not if thy countenance were mask'd 
With hundred vizards, could a thought of thine, 
How small soe'er, elude me. What thou saw'st 
Was shown, that freely thou mightst ope thy heart 
To the waters of peace, that flow diffused 
From their eternal fountain. I not ask'd, 
What ails thee ? for such cause as he doth, who 
Looks only with that eye, which sees no more, 
When spiritless the body lies ; but ask'd, 
To give fresh vigour to thy foot. Such goads, 
The slow and loitering need ; that they be found 
Not wanting, when their hour of watch returns." 

So on we journey'd, through the evening sky 
Gazing intent, far onward as our eyes, 
With level view, could stretch against the bright 
Vespertine ray : and lo ! by slow degrees 
Gathering, a fog made towards us, dark as night. 
There was no room for 'scaping ; and that mist 
Bereft us, both of sight and the pure air. 

1 A stripling youth.] The protomartyr Stephen, 
S 



(258) THE VISION. 1—30. 

CANTO XVI. 



ARGUMENT. 

As they proceed through the mist, they hear the voices of spirits praying-. 
Marco Lombardo, one of these, points out to Dante the error of such as 
impute our actions to necessity ; explains to him that man is endued with 
free will ; and shows that much of human depravity results from the un- 
due mixture of spiritual and temporal authority in rulers. 

Hell's dunnest gloom, or night unlustrous, dark, 
Of every planet 'reft, and palTd in clouds, 
Did never spread before the sight a veil 
In thickness like that fog, nor to the sense 
So palpable and gross. Entering its shade, 
Mine eye endured not with unclosed lids ; 
Which marking, near me drew the faithful guide, 
Offering me his shoulder for a stay. 

As the blind man behind his leader walks, 
Lest he should err, or stumble unawares 
On what might harm him or perhaps destroy ; 
I journey' d through that bitter air and foul, 
Still listening to my escort's warning voice, 
" Look that from me thou part not." Straight I heard 
Voices, and each one seem'd to pray for peace, 
And for compassion, to the Lamb of God 
That taketh sins away. Their prelude still 
Was " Agnus Dei ;" and through all the choir, 
One voice, one measure ran, that perfect seem'd 
The concord of their song. " Are these I hear 
Spirits, O master ? " I exclaim'd ; and he, 
" Thou aim'st aright : these loose the bonds of wrath." 

" Now who art thou, that through our smoke dost cleave, 
And speak'st of us, as thou 1 thyself e'en yet 
Dividedst time by calends ? " So one voice 
Bespake me ; whence my master said, " Reply ; 
And ask, if upward hence the passage lead." 

" being ! who dost make thee pure, to stand 
Beautiful once more in thy Maker's sight ; 
Along with me : and thou shalt hear and wonder." 

1 As thou.] " As if thou wert still living." 



31—60. PURGATORY, Canto XVI. (259) 

Thus I, whereto the spirit answering spake : 

" Long as 'tis lawful for me, shall my steps 

Follow on thine ; and since the cloudy smoke 

Forbids the seeing, hearing in its stead 

Shall keep us join'd." I then forthwith began : 

" Yet in my mortal swathing, I ascend 

To higher regions ; and am hither come 

Thorough the fearful agony of hell. 

And, if so largely God hath doled his grace, 

That, clean beside all modern precedent, 

He wills me to behold his kingly state ; 

From me conceal not who thou wast, ere death 

Had loosed thee ; but instruct me : and instruct 

If rightly to the pass I tend ; thy words 

The way directing, as a safe escort." 

"I was of Lombardy, and Marco call'd 1 : 
Not inexperienced of the world, that worth 
I still affected, from which all have turn'd 
The nerveless bow aside. Thy course tends right 
Unto the summit :" and, replying thus, 
He added, " I beseech thee pray for me, 
When thou shalt come aloft." And I to him : 
" Accept my faith for pledge I will perform 
What thou requirest. Yet one doubt remains, 
That wrings me sorely, if I solve it not. 
Singly before it urged me, doubled now 
By thine opinion, when I couple that 
With one elsewhere 2 declared ; each strengthening other. 
The world indeed is even so forlorn 
Of all good, as thou speak'st it, and so swarms 

1 / was of Lombardy , and Marco call'd.] A Venetian gentleman. " Lom- 
bardo," both was bis sirname and denoted the country to which he belonged. 
G. Villani, lib. rii. cap. cxx. terms him " a wise and worthy courtier." Ben- 
venuto da Imola, says Landino, relates of him, that being imprisoned and 
not able to pay the price of his ransom, he applied by letter to his friend Ric- 
cardo da Camino, lord of Treyigi, for relief. Riccardo set on foot a contribu- 
tion among several nobles of Lombardy for the purpose ; of which when Marco 
was informed, he wrote back with much indignation to Riccardo, that he 
had rather die than remain under obligations to so many benefactors. It is 
added that Riccardo then paid the whole out of his own purse. Of this 
generous man I have occasion to speak again in the notes to Canto yiii. 71, 
and to Par. Canto ix. 48. 2 Elsewhere.'] He refers to what Guido del 
Duca had said in the fourteenth Canto, concerning the degeneracy of his 
countrymen. 

s 2 



(260) THE VISION. 61—82. 

With every evil. Yet, beseech thee, point 
The cause out to me, that myself may see, 
And unto others show it : for in heaven 
One places it, and one on earth below." 

Then heaving forth a deep and audible sigh, 
" Brother ! " he thus began, " the world is blind ; 
And thou in truth comest from it. Ye, who live, 
Do so each cause refer to heaven above, 
E'en as its motion, of necessity, 
Drew with it all that moves. If this were so 1 , 
Free choice in you were none ; nor justice would 
There should be joy for virtue, woe for ill. 
Your movements have their primal bent from heaven ; 
Not all : yet said I all ; what then ensues ? 
Light have ye still to follow evil or good, 
And of the will free power, which, if it stand 
Firm and unwearied in Heaven's first assay, 
Conquers at last, so it be cherish' d well, 
Triumphant over all. To mightier force 2 , 
To better nature subject, ye abide 
Free, not constraint by that which forms in you 
The reasoning mind uninfluenced of the stars. 

1 If this were so.] Mr. Crowe, in his Lewesdon Hill, has expressed simi- 
lar sentiments with much energy. 

Of this be sure, 

Where freedom is not, there no virtue is : 
If there be none, this world is all a cheat, 
And the divine stability of heaven 
(That assured seat for good men after death) 
Is but a transient cloud, display' d so fair 
To cherish virtuous hope, but at our need 
Eludes the sense, and fools our honest faith, 
Vanishing in a lie, &c. 
So, also, Frezzi, in his Quadriregio. 

Or sappi ben che Dio ha dato il freno 
A voi di voi ; e, se non fosse questo, 
Libero arbitrio in voi sarebbe meno. Lib. ii. cap. 1. 
There is much more on this subject at the conclusion of the eighth Capitolo 
of this book. Compare also Origen. in Genesin. Patrum Graecor. vol. xi. p. 
14. Werceburgi, 1783, 8vo. and Tertullian, Contra Marcionem, lib. ii. p. 
458. Lutetiae, 1641, fol. A very noble passage on the freedom of the will 
occurs in the first book De Monarchia, beginning, " Et humanum genus, 
potissimum liberum, optime se habet." "The human race, when most 
completely free, is in its highest state of excellence." 2 To mightier 

force.} " Though ye are subject to a higher power than that of the heavenly 
constellations, even to the power of the great Creator himself, yet ye are still 
left in the possession of liberty." 



83 — 110. PURGATORY, Canto XVI. (261) 

If then the present race of mankind err, 
Seek in yourselves the cause, and find it there. 
Herein thou shalt confess me no false spy. 

" Forth from his plastic hand, who charm' d beholds 
Her image ere she yet exist, the soul 
Comes like a babe, that wantons sportively \ 
Weeping and laughing in its wayward moods ; 
As artless, and as ignorant of aught, 
Save that her Maker being one who dwells 
With gladness ever, willingly she turns 
To whate'er yields her joy. Of some slight good 
The flavour soon she tastes ; and, snared by that, 
With fondness she pursues it ; if no guide 
Recal, no rein direct her wandering course. 
Hence it behoved, the law should be a curb ; 
A sovereign hence behoved, whose piercing view 
Might mark at least the fortress 2 and main tower 
Of the true city. Laws indeed there are : 
But who is he observes them ? None ; not he, 
Who goes before, the shepherd of the flock, 
Who 3 chews the cud but doth not cleave the hoof. 
Therefore the multitude, who see their guide 
Strike at the very good they covet most, 
Feed there and look no further. Thus the cause 
Is not corrupted nature in yourselves, 
But ill-conducting, that hath turn'd the world 
To evil. Rome, that turn'd it unto good, 
Was wont to boast two suns 4 , whose several beams 

1 Like a babe, that wantons sportively.'] This reminds us of the Emperor 
Hadrian's verses to his departing soul. 

Animula vagula blandula, &c. 

2 The fortress.'] Justice, the most necessary virtue in the chief magistrate, 
as the commentators for the most part explain it : and it appears manifest 
from all our Poet says in his first book De Monarchic, concerning the 
authority of the temporal Monarch and concerning Justice, that they are 
right. Yet Lombardi understands the law here spoken of to be the law of 
God ; the sovereign, a spiritual ruler, and the true city, the society of true 
believers ; so that the fortress, according to him, denotes the principal parts 
of Christian duty. 3 Who.] He compares the Pope, on account of the 
union of the temporal with the spiritual power in his person, to an unclean 
beast in the levitical law. " The camel, because he cheweth the cud, but 
divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you." Levit. xi. 4. 4 Two 
suns.] The Emperor and the Bishop of Rome. There is something similar 
to this in the De Monarchic, lib. iii. p. 138. " They say first, according 
to that text in Genesis, that God made two great lights, the greater light 
and the lesser, the one to rule the day, and the other the night ; then, that 



(262) THE VISION. 111—131. 

Cast light on either way, the world's and God's. 

One since hath quench' d the other ; and the sword 

Is grafted on the crook ; and, so conjoin'd, 

Each must perforce decline to worse, unawed 

By fear of other. If thou doubt me, mark 

The blade : each herb is judged of by its seed. 

That land 1 , through which Adice and the Po 

Their waters roll, was once the residence 

Of courtesy and valour, ere the day 2 

That frown'd on Frederick ; now secure may pass 

Those limits, whosoe'er hath left, for shame, 

To talk with good men, or come near their haunts. 

Three aged ones are still found there, in whom 

The old time 3 chides the new : these deem it long 

Ere God restore them to a better world : 

The good Gherardo 4 ; of Palazzo he, 

Conrad 5 ; and Guido of Castello 6 , named 

In Gallic phrase more fitly the plain Lombard. 

On this at last conclude. The church of Rome, 

Mixing two governments that ill assort, 

Hath miss'd her footing, fallen into the mire 7 , 

as the moon, which is the lesser light, has no brightness, except as she re- 
ceives it from the sun, so neither has the temporal kingdom authority, 
except what it receives from the spiritual government." The fallacy of 
which reasoning (if such it can be called) he proceeds to prove. 

1 That land.} Lombardy. 2 Ere the day.] Before the Emperor Frede- 
rick II. was defeated before Parma, in 1248. G. Yillani, lib. vi. cap, xxxv. 

3 The old time.] L'antica eta. 

It is silly sooth, 

And dallies with the innocence of love, 

Like the old age. Shakspeare, Twelfth Night, act ii. sc. 4. 

4 The good Gherardo.] Gherardo da C amino, of Trevigi. He is honour- 
ably mentioned in our Poet's Convito, p. 173. " Let us suppose that Gherardo 
da C amino had been the grandson of the meanest hind that ever drank of 
the Sile or the Cagnano, and that his grandfather was not yet forgotten ; 
who will dare to say that Gherardo da Camino was a mean man, and who 
will not agree with me in calling him noble ? Certainly no one, however 
presumptuous, will deny this ; for such he was, and as such let him ever be 
remembered." Tiraboschi supposes him to have been the same Gherardo 
with whom the Provencal poets were used to meet a hospitable reception. 
" This is probably that same Gherardo, who, together with his sons, so early 
as before the year 1254, gave a kind and hospitable reception to the Provencal 
poets." Mr. Mathias's edition, torn. i. p. 137. 5 Conrad.] Currado da 
Palazzo, a gentleman of Brescia. 6 Guido of Castello.] Of Reggio. All 
the Italians were called Lombards by the French. 7 Fallen into the mire.] 
There is a passage resembling this in the De Vulg. Eloq. lib. ii. cap. 4. " Ante 
omnia ergo dicimus unumquemque debere materiae pondus propriis humeris 
excipere sequale, ne forte humerorum nimio gravatam virtutem in ccenum 
cespitare necesse sit." 



132—149. PURGATORY, Canto XVI. (263) 

And there herself and burden much defiled." 
" O Marco ! " I replied, " thine arguments 

Convince me : and the cause I now discern, 

Why of the heritage no portion came 

To Levi's offspring. But resolve me this : 

Who that Gherardo is, that as thou say'st 

Is left a sample of the perish'd race, 

And for rebuke to this untoward age ?" 

" Either thy words," said he, " deceive, or else 

Are meant to try me ; that thou, speaking Tuscan, 

Appear'st not to have heard of good Gherardo ; 

The sole addition that, by which I know him ; 

Unless I borrow'd from his daughter Gaia ' 

Another name to grace him. God be with you. 

I bear you company no more. Behold 

The dawn with white ray glimmering through the mist. 

I must away — the angel comes — ere he 

Appear." He said, and would not hear me more. 

CANTO XVII. 



ARGUMENT. 

The Poet issues from that thick vapour ; and soon after his fancy represents 
to him in lively portraiture some noted examples of anger. This imagina- 
tion is dissipated by the appearance of an angel, who marshals them on- 
ward to the fourth cornice, on which the sin of gloominess or indifference 
is purged ; and here Virgil shows him that this vice proceeds from a defect 
of love, and that all love can be only of two sorts, either natural, or of the 
soul ; of which sorts the former is always right, but the latter may err 
either in respect of object or of degree. 

Call to remembrance, reader, if thou e'er 
Hast on an Alpine height 2 been ta'en by cloud, 

1 His daughter Gaia.] A lady equally admired for her modesty, the beauty 
of her person, and the excellency of her talents. Gaia, says Tiraboschi, may 
perhaps lay claim to the praise of having been the first among the Italian 
ladies, by whom the vernacular poetry was cultivated. This appears (although 
no one has yet named her as a poetess) from the MS. Commentary on the 
Commedia of Dante, by Giovanni da Serravalle, afterwards bishop of Fermo, 
where, commenting on Canto xvi. of the Purgatory, he says : " De ista Gaja 
filia dicti boni Gerardi, possent dici multae laudes, quia fait prudens domina, 
literata, magni consilii, et niagnae prudentiae, maxim se pulchritudinis, quae 
scivit bene loqui rhytmatice in vulgari." 2 On an Alpine height.'] " Nell' 
alpe." Although the Alps, as Landino remarks, are properly those moun- 
tains which divide Italy from France, yet from them all high mountains are 



Xi 













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So rob us oi ourselves, rre mho :o: mork 

Wh:;t moves time, if tie Srrses stir umV Limit 

Bv vrih .iivin^^or^av'd before me^"orie 

"VThose ibrm vms changed into the bird, tbot most 
Delights its elf in sorm: and here mv mind 



An< 



en thr intr : iu;ri:n •:■: it into tint at ana a See the 



» son^.j I cannot think with Veflutello, that the 
. Dante probably alludes to the story of Philomela, 

r's Oayssey. b. six. olt. rather thin a.s liter t :ets have 
ed to slay the son of her husband's brother Amphion, 

tv :: his vrife, ~~0i : ha :1 sis chili: 11: : : • ;1: 

. niistake slew her :™ s:n Ityha.: aaaish- 

L by Jupiter into a nightingale.'* Cowper's note on 
iking : the nightingale, let me observe, that while 

its s:ns as a raelan:h:lv. as:! :rhers as a cheerful :ue. 
have c:zae nearest the truth, vrhen he says, in the 



INhn mai si stun: a a'iterar le note. 

st:-; :nae ■:■ d:gli:s-e. 

Albmtir dulettese. 
T_ nvre-ariea sat — reiterates ner .ays. 
Jocund or sad, delightful to the ear. 

leasing letter on this subject by a late illustrious statesman. 
■■i:.'i— :■■-.::-::. :; F::::'s E'r: y :./ J : :>k : i II. E:.\:. ISO'S, y. 
autirul poem by Mr. Coleridge. I know not whether the 

v a ne tie :te 1 pi et hare yet been noticed, as showing the 
trims that have rte~ailea resyc ;:;:; the sur :: th 



23—49. PURGATORY, Canto XVII. (265) 

Was inwardly so wrapt, it gave no place 
To aught that ask'd admittance from without. 
Next shower'd into my fantasy a shape 
As of one crucified \ whose visage spake 
Fell rancour, malice deep, wherein he died ; 
And round him Ahasuerus the great king ; 
Esther his bride ; and Mordecai the just, 
Blameless in word and deed. As of itself 
That unsubstantial coinage of the brain 
Burst, like a bubble 2 , when the water fails 
That fed it ; in my vision straight uprose 
A damsel 3 weeping loud, and cried, " O queen ! 

mother ! wherefore has intemperate ire 
Driven thee to loathe thy being ? Not to lose 
Lavinia, desperate thou hast slain thyself. 
Now hast thou lost me. I am she, whose tears 
Mourn, ere I fall, a mother's timeless end." 

E'en as a sleep breaks off, if suddenly 
New radiance strike upon the closed lids, 
The broken slumber quivering ere it dies 4 ; 
Thus, from before me, sunk that imagery, 
Vanishing, soon as on my face there struck 
The light, outshining far our earthly beam. 
As round I turn'd me to survey what place 

1 had arrived at, " Here ye mount": exclaim'd 
A voice, that other purpose left me none 
Save will so eager to behold who spake, 

The cheerful birds 

With sweetest notes to sing their Maker's praise, 

Among the which, the merrie nightingale 

With swete and swete, her breast against a thorn, 

Hinges out all night. Vallans, Tale of Two Swannes. 

1 One crucified.'] Haman. See the book of Esther, c. vii. "In the 
Lunetta of Haman, we owe the snblime conception of his figure (by Michael 
Angelo) to this passage." Fuseli, Lecture iii. note. 

2 Like a bubble.] "The earth hath bnbbles, as the water has, 

And these are of them. 

Shakspeare, Macbeth, act i. sc. 3. 

3 A damsel.] Lavinia, monrning for her mother Amata, who, impelled 
by grief and indignation for the supposed death of Tnrnus, destroyed her- 
self. JEn. lib. xii. 595. 4 The broken slumber quivering ere it dies.] 
Venturi suggests that this bold and unusual metaphor may have been 
formed on that in Virgil. 

Tempus erat quo prima quies mortalibus aegris 

Incipit, et dono divum gratissima serpit. JEn. lib. ii. 268. 



(2-3-3) THE VISION. 53—57. 

I could not chuse but gaze. As 'fore the sun. 

That weighs our vision down, and veils his form 

In light transcendent, thus my virtue fail'd 

Unequal. " This is Spirit from above. 

"Who marshals us our upward way. unsought ; 

And in his own light shrouds him. As a man 

Doth for himself, so now is done for us. 

For whoso waits imploring, yet sees need 

Of his prompt aidance. sets himself prepared 

For blunt denial, ere the suit be made. 

Refuse we not to lend a ready foot 

At such inviting : haste we to ascend. 

Before it darken : for we may not then. 

Till morn again return.*' So spake my euide : 

And to one ladder both address'd our steps : 

And the first stair approaching. I perceived 

Near me as 'twere the waving of a wing. 

That fann'd my face, and whisper'd : "Blessed they. 

The peace-makers 1 : they know not evil wrath." 

Now to such height above cur heads were raised 
The last beams, follow* d close by ho-: :led night. 
That many a star on all sides through the gloom 
Shone out. "'Why partest from me. my strength?" 
So with myself I communed ; for I felt 
My o'ertoil'd sinews slacken. TV~e had reach'd 
The summit, and were fix'd like to a bark 
Arrived at land. And waiting a short space. 
If aught should meet mine ear in that new round. 
Then to my guide I turn'd. and said : "Loved sire ! 
Declare what guilt is on this circle purged. 
If our feet rest, no need thy speech should pause.'* 

He thus to me : " The love 2 of good, whate'er 
TTanted of just proportion, here fulfils. 
Here plies afresh the oar. that loiter'd ill. 
But that thou mayst yet clearlier understand. 
Give ear unto my words : and thou shalt cull 
Some fruit may please thee well, from this delay. 

"' Creator, nor created being, e'er. 

1 7a~ ■■-€c>:~-;v,c. : :iTS~ " Blessed are tie re ace -makers : for thev shili :"- 
ieve to^viTCLS Lt'.z.. ~r *Uj£.e^~2..rnine5.s in new. is nere reni'Wtci. 



88—117. PURGATORY, Canto XVII. (267) 

My son," he thus began, " was without love, 

Or natural *, or the free spirit's growth. 

Thou hast not that to learn. The natural still 

Is without error : but the other swerves, 

If on ill object bent, or through excess 

Of vigour, or defect. While e'er it seeks 2 

The primal blessings 3 , or with measure due 

The inferior 4 , no delight, that flows from it, 

Partakes of ill. But let it warp to evil, 

Or with more ardour than behoves, or less, 

Pursue the good ; the thing created then 

Works 'gainst its Maker. Hence thou must infer, 

That love is germin of each virtue in ye, 

And of each act no less, that merits pain. 

Now 5 since it may not be, but love intend 

The welfare mainly of the thing it loves, 

All from self-hatred are secure ; and since 

No being can be thought to exist apart, 

And independent of the first, a bar 

Of equal force restrains from hating that. 

" Grant the distinction just ; and it remains 
The evil must be another's, which is loved. 
Three ways such love is gender'd in your clay. 
There is 6 who hopes (his neighbour's worth deprest) 
Pre-eminence himself ; and covets hence, 
For his own greatness, that another fall. 
There is 7 who so much fears the loss of power, 
Fame, favour, glory, (should his fellow mount 
Above him,) and so sickens at the thought, 
He loves their opposite: and there is he 8 , 

1 Or natural.] Lombard! refers to the Coirvito, Canz. i. Tratt. 2. cap. 3, 
where this subject is diffusely treated by our Poet. 

2 While e'er it seeks.] So Frezzi : 

E s'egli e oen, che d'altro ben dipenda, 
Non s'ami quasi per se esistente, 
Se yuoi, che quando e tolto, non t'offenda. 

II Quadrir. lib. ii. cap. 14. 
This Capitolo, which describes the punishment of those who give way to 
inordinate grief for the loss of their kindred, is marked by much power of 
imagination and a sublime morality. 3 The primal blessings.] Spiritual 
good. 4 The inferior.] Temporal good. 5 Now.] " It is impossible 
for any being, either to hate itself, or to hate the First Cause of all, by which 
it exists. We can therefore only rejoice in the evil which befals others.'* 
6 There is.] The proud. 7 There is.] The envious. 8 There is he.] 
The resentful. 



(268) 



THE VISION. 



US— 137 






Whom wrong or insult seems to gall and shame, 
That he doth thirst for vengeance : anjl such needs 
Must dote on other's evil. Here beneath. 
This threefold love is mourn'd 1 . Of the other sort 
Be now instructed : that which follows good. 
But with disorder'd and irregular course. 

"All indistinctly apprehend a bliss. 
On which the soul may rest : the hearts of all 
Yearn after it : and to that wished bourn 
All therefore strive to tend. If ye behold. 
Or seek it, with a love remiss and lax ; 
This cornice, after just repenting, lays 
Its penal torment on ye. Other good 
There is, where man rinds not his happiness : 
It is not true fruition ; not that blest 
Essence, of every good the branch and root. 
The love too lavishly bestow'd on this. 
Along three circles- over us. is mo urn M. 
Account of that division tripartite 
Expect not. fitter for thine own research." 






1 This threefold love is -mounvd.] Frezzi alludes to this distinction. 

Superbia puote essere in tre modi ; 
Si come si dimostra dalla Musa, 
• La qua! hai letta, e che tu tanto lodi. U Quadrir. lib. iiL cap. 2. 

2 Along three circles.] According to the allegorical commentators, as 
Venturi has observed, Reason is :■ presented under the person c: Virgil. :.n;i 
Sense under that of Dante. The former leaves to the latter to discover for 
itself the three carnal sins — avarice, gluttony, and Hbidinousness ; having 
already declared the nature of the spiritual sins — pride, envy, anger, and 
indifference, or lukewarmness in piety, which the Italians call accidia, from 
the Greek word aicridia, and which Chaucer vainly endeavoured to naturalize 
in our language. See the Persone's Tale. Lombardi refers to Thomas 
Aquinas, lib. L Quest. 72. Art. 2, for the division here made by our Poet. 



1—23. PURGATORY, Canto XVIII. (269) 

CANTO XVIII. 



ARGUMENT. 

Virgil discourses farther concerning the nature of love. Then a multitude 
of spirits rush by ; two of whom in van of the rest, record instances of zeal 
and fervent affection, and another, who was abbot of San Zeno in Verona, 
declares himself to Virgil and Dante; and lastly follow other spirits, 
shouting forth memorable examples of the sin for which they suffer. The 
Poet, pursuing his meditations, falls into a dreamy slumber. 

The teacher ended l , and his high discourse 

Concluding, earnest in my looks inquired 

If I appear'd content ; and I, whom still 

Unsated thirst to hear him urged, was mute, 

Mute outwardly, yet inwardly I said : 

"Perchance my too much questioning offends." 

But he, true father, mark'd the secret wish 

By diffidence restrain'd ; and, speaking, gave 

Me boldness thus to speak : " Master ! my sight 

Gathers so lively virtue from thy beams, 

That all, thy words convey, distinct is seen. 

Wherefore I pray thee, father, whom this heart 

Holds dearest, thou wouldst deign by proof t' unfold 

That love, from which, as from their source, thou bring'st 

All good deeds and their opposite." He then : 

" To what I now disclose be thy clear ken 

Directed ; and thou plainly shalt behold 

How much those blind have err'd, who make themselves 

The guides of men. The soul, created apt 

To love, moves versatile which way soe'er 

Aught pleasing prompts her, soon as she is waked 

By pleasure into act. Of substance true 

Your apprehension 2 forms its counterfeit ; 

1 The teacher ended.] Compare Plato, Protagoras, v. iii. p. 123. Bip. edit. 
HptoTayopas /ul&v ToaravTa, k. t. \. Apoll. Rhod. 1. i. 513, and Milton, P, 
L. b. viii. 1. 

The angel ended, and in Adam's ear 

So charming left his voice, that he awhile 

Thought him still speaking, still stood fix'd to hear. 

2 Your apprehension.] It is literally, " Your apprehensive faculty de- 
rives intension from a thing really existing, and displays that intension 
within you, so that it makes the soul turn to it." The commentators labour 
in explaining this ; but whatever sense they have elicited, may, I think, be 
resolved into the words of the translation in the text. 




(270) THE VISION. 24—48. 

And, in you the ideal shape presenting, 
Attracts the soul's regard. If she, thus drawn, 
Incline toward it ; love is that inclining, 
And a new nature knit by pleasure in ye. 
Then, as the fire points up, and mounting seeks 
His birth-place and his lasting seat, e'en thus 
Enters the captive soul into desire, 
Which is a spiritual motion, that ne'er rests 
Before enjoyment of the thing it loves. 
Enough to show thee, how the truth from those 
Is hidden, who aver all love a thing 
Praise-worthy in itself ; although perhaps l 
Its matter seem still good. Yet if the wax 
Be good, it follows not the impression must." 

"TVhat love is," I return'd, "thy words, guide ! 
And my own docile mind, reveal. Yet thence 
New doubts have sprung. For, from without, if love 
Be offer 'd to us, and the spirit knows 
No other footing ; tend she right or wrong, 
Is no desert of hers." He answering thus : 
" What reason here discovers, I have power 
To show thee : that which lies beyond, expect 
From Beatrice, faith not reason's task. 
Spirit 2 , substantial form, with matter join'd, 
Not in confusion mix'd, hath in itself 



1 Perhajjs.] " Our author," Tenturi observes, " uses the language of the 
Peripatetics, which denominates the kind of things, as determinable by many 
differences, matter. Love then, in kind perhaps, appears good ; and it is 
said perhaps, because, strictly speaking, in kind there is neither good nor 
bad, neither praiseworthy nor blameable." To this Lombardi adds, that 
what immediately follows, namely, that " every mark is not good although 
the wax be so," answers to this interpretation. For the wax is precisely as 
the determinable matter, and the mark or impression as the determining 
form ; and even as the wax, which is either good or at least not bad, may, 
by being imprinted by a bad figure, acquire the name of bad ; so may love 
be said generally to be good or at least not bad, and acquire the name of bad 
by being determined to an unfit object. " As the wax takes all shapes, and 
yet is wax still at the bottom ; the to xj-kokzi^vov still is wax; so the soul 
transported in so many several passions of joy, fear, hope, sorrow, anger, 
and the like, has for its general groundwork of all this, Love." Henry 
More, Discourse xvi. This passage in the most philosophical of our theolo- 
gians, may serve for an answer to the objection of those who blame Collins 
for not having brought in Love among the " Passions" in his exquisite ode. 
2 Spirit.] The human soul, which differs from that of brutes, inasmuch 
as though united with the body it has a separate existence of its own. 



49—78. PURGATORY, Canto XVIII. (271) 

Specific virtue of that union born, 

Which is not felt except it work, nor proved 

But through effect, as vegetable life 

By the green leaf. From whence his intellect 

Deduced its primal notices of things, 

Man therefore knows not, or his appetites 

Their first affections ; such in you, as zeal 

In bees to gather honey ; at the first, 

Volition, meriting nor blame nor praise. 

But o'er each lower faculty supreme, 

That, as she list, are summon'd to her bar, 

Ye have that virtue 1 in you, whose just voice 

Uttereth counsel, and whose word should keep 

The threshold of assent. Here is the source, 

Whence cause of merit in you is derived ; 

E'en as the affections, good or ill, she takes, 

Or severs 2 , winnow'd as the chaff. Those men 3 , 

Who, reasoning, went to depth profoundest, inark'd 

That innate freedom ; and were thence induced 

To leave their moral teaching to the world. 

Grant then, that from necessity arise 

All love that glows within you ; to dismiss 

Or harbour it, the power is in yourselves. 

Remember, Beatrice, in her style, 

Denominates free choice by eminence 

The noble virtue ; if in talk with thee 

She touch upon that theme." The moon, well nigh 

To midnight hour belated, made the stars 

Appear to wink and fade ; and her broad disk 

Seem'd like a crag 4 on fire, as up the vault 5 

1 That virtue.] Reason. 2 Or severs.'] Lest the reader of the original 
should be misled, it is right to warn him that the -word " vigliare " must not 
be confounded with " vagliare " to winnow, and strictly means " to separate 
from the straw what remains of the grain after the threshing." The process 
is distinctly described in the notes on the Decameron, p. 77, Ediz. Giunti, 
1573, where this passage is referred to. 3 Those men.] The great moral 
philosophers among the heathens. 4 A crag.] I have preferred the read- 
ing of Landino, scheggion, " crag," conceiving it to be more poetical than 
secchion, "bucket," which is the common reading. The same cause, the 
vapours, which the commentators say might give the appearance of in- 
creased magnitude to the moon, might also make her seem broken at her 
rise. Lombardi explains it differently. The moon being, as he says, in the 
fifth night of her wane, has exactly the figure of a brazen bucket, round at the 
bottom and open at top ; and, if we suppose it to be all on fire, we shall have, 




(272) THE VISION. 79—103. 

That course she journey'd, which the sun then warms ; 

When they of Rome behold him at his set 

Betwixt Sardinia and the Corsic isle. 

And now the weight, that hung upon my thought, 

Was lightenM by the aid of that clear spirit, 

Who raiseth Andes l above Mantua's name. 

I therefore, when my questions had obtain'd 

Solution plain and ample, stood as one 

Musing in dreamy slumber ; but not long 

Slumber'd ; for suddenly a multitude, 

The steep already turning from behind, 

Rush'd on. With fury and like random rout, 

As echoing on their shores at midnight heard 

Ismenus and Asopus 2 , for his Thebes 

If Bacchus' help were needed ; so came these 

Tumultuous, curving each his rapid step, 

By eagerness impell'd of holy love. 

Soon they o'ertook us ; with such swiftness moved 
The mighty crowd. Two spirits at their head 
Cried, weeping, "Blessed Mary 3 sought with haste 
The hilly region. Cassar 4 , to subdue 
Ilerda, darted in Marseilles his sting, 
And flew to Spain." — " Oh, tarry not : away ! " 
The others shouted ; " let not time be lost 
Through slackness of affection. Hearty zeal 
To serve reanimates celestial grace." 

" O ye ! in whom intenser fervency 
Haply supplies, where lukewarm erst ye fail'd, 
Slow or neglectful, to absolve your part 
Of good and virtuous ; this man, who yet lives, 

besides the form of the moon, her colour also. There is a simile in one of Field- 
ing's novels very like this, but so ludicrous that I am unwilling to disturb the 
reader's gravity by inserting it. 5 Up the vaults The moon passed with 
a motion opposite to that of the heavens, through the constellation of the 
Scorpion, in which the sun is, when to those who are in Rome he appears to 
set between the isles of Corsica and Sardinia. l Andes.] Andes, now 
Pietola, made more famous than Mantua, near which it is situated, by having 
been the birth-place of "Virgil. 2 Ismenus and Asopus.] Rivers near 
Thebes. 3 Mary.] " And Mary arose in those days, and went into the 
hill -country with haste, into a city of Judah ; and entered into the house of 
Zacharias, and saluted Elisabeth." Luke, i. 39, 40. * Ccesar.] See Lucan, 
Phars. lib. iii. and iv. and Caesar, de Bello Civili, lib. i. Cassar left Brutus 
to complete the siege of Marseilles, and hastened on to the attack of Afranius 
and Petreius, the generals of Pompey, at Ilerda (Lerida) in Spain. 



109—142. PURGATORY, Canto XVIII. (273) 

(Credit my tale, though strange,) desires to ascend, 
So morning rise to light us. Therefore say 
Which hand leads nearest to the rifted rock." 

So spake my guide ; to whom a shade return'd : 
" Come after us, and thou shalt find the cleft. 
We may not linger : such resistless will 
Speeds our unwearied course. Vouchsafe us then 
Thy pardon, if our duty seem to thee 
Discourteous rudeness. In Yerona I 
Was abbot 1 of San Zeno, when the hand 
Of Barbarossa grasp'd Imperial sway, 
That name ne'er utter 'd without tears in Milan. 
And there is he 2 , hath one foot in his grave, 
Who for that monastery ere long shall weep, 
Ruing his power misused : for that his son, 
Of body ill compact, and worse in mind, 
And born in evil, he hath set in place 
Of its true pastor." Whether more he spake, 
Or here was mute, I know not : he had sped 
E'en now so far beyond us. Yet thus much 
I heard, and in remembrance treasured it. 

He then, who never fail'd me at my need, 
Cried, " Hither turn. Lo ! two with sharp remorse 
Chiding their sin." In rear of all the troop 
These shouted: "First they died 3 , to whom the sea 
Open'd, or ever Jordan saw his heirs : 
And they 4 , who with JEneas to the end 
Endured not suffering, for their portion chose 
Life without glory." *" Soon as they had fled 
Past reach of sight, new thought within me rose 
By others follow'd fast, and each unlike 
Its fellow : till led on from thought to thought, 
And pleasured with the fleeting train, mine eye 
Was closed, and meditation changed to dream. 

1 Abbot.] Alberto, abbot of San Zeno in Yerona, when Frederick I. was 
emperor, by whoni Milan was besieged and reduced to asbes, in 1162. 

2 There is he.] Alberto della Scala, Lord of Verona, who bad made his 
natural son abbot of San Zeno. 3 First they died.] The Israelites, who 
on account of their disobedience died before reaching the promised land. 

4 And they.] Those Trojans, who, wearied with their voyage, chose rather 
to remain in Sicily with Acestes, than accompany jEneas to Italy. Virg, 
JEn. lib. v. 



(274) THE VISION. 1—1 

CANTO XIX. 



ARGUMENT. 

Tlie Poet, after describing his dream, relates how, at the summoning of an 
angel, he ascends with Yirgil to the fifth cornice, where the sin of avarice 
is cleansed, and where he finds Pope Adrian the fifth. 

It was the hour \ when of diurnal heat 
No reliques chafe the cold beams of the moon, 
O'erpower'd by earth, or planetary sway 
Of Saturn ; and the geomancer 2 sees 
His Greater Fortune up the east ascend, 
Where grey dawn checkers first the shadowy cone ; 
TThen, Tore me in my dream, a woman's shape 3 
There came, with lips that stammer'd, eyes aslant, 
Distorted feet, hands maim'd, and colour pale. 
I look'd upon her : and, as sunshine cheers 
Limbs numb'd by nightly cold, e'en thus my look 
Unloosed her tongue ; next, in brief space, her form 
Decrepit raised erect, and faded face 
TTith love's own hue 4 illumed. Eecovering speech, 
She forthwith, warbling, such a strain began, 
That I, how loth soe'er, could scarce have held 
Attention from the song. "I," thus she sang, 

1 The hour.] Xear the dawn. 2 The geomancer .] The geomancers, 
says Landino, when they divined, drew a figure consisting of sixteen marks, 
named from so many stars which constitute the end of Aquarius and the be- 
ginning of Pisces. One of these they called " the greater fortune." Chaucer 
has imitated this in a description of morning, (Troilus and Creseide, b. iii.) 
for he did not find it in his original, Boccaccio's Filostrato ; — 

But when the cocke, commune astrologer, 

Gan on his brest to bete, and after crowe, 

And Lucifer the dayis messanger 

Gan for to rise, and out his bemis throwe, 

And estward rose, to him that could it knowe, 

Fortuna Major. 

3 A icomans shape.] "VVorldly happiness. This allegory reminds us of 
the " Choice of Hercules." 

4 Love's oxen hue.] 

A smile that glow'd 

Celestial rosy red, love's ^proper hue. Milton, P. L. b. viii. 619. 

facies pulcherrima tunc est, 

Quum porphyriaco yariatur Candida rubro. 

Quid color hie roseus sibi rult r designat arnorein : 

Quippe amor est igni similis ; flammasque rubentes 

Ignis habere solet. Palingenii Zodiacus Vitce, lib. xii. 



IS— 51. PURGATORY, Canto XIX. (275) 

" I am the Syren, she, whom mariners 
On the wide sea are wilder'd when they hear : 
Such fulness of delight the listener feels. 
I, from his course, Ulysses x by my lay 
Enchanted drew. Whoe'er frequents me once, 
Parts seldom : so I charm him, and his heart 
Contented knows no void." Or ere her mouth 
Was closed, to shame her, at my side appear'd 
A dame 2 of semblance holy. With stern voice 
She utter'd : " Say, O Virgil ! who is this ?" 
Which hearing, he approach' d, with eyes still bent 
Toward that goodly presence : the other seized her, 
And, her robes tearing, open'd her before, 
And show'd the belly to me, whence a smell, 
Exhaling loathsome, waked me. Round I turn'd 
Mine eyes : and thus the teacher : " At the least 
Three times my voice hath call'd thee. Rise, begone. 
Let us the opening find where thou mayst pass." 

I straightway rose. Now day, pour'd down from high, 
Fill'd all the circuits of the sacred mount ; 
And, as we journey'd, on our shoulder smote 
The early ray. I folio w'd, stooping low 
My forehead, as a man, o'ercharged with thought, 
Who bends him to the likeness of an arch 
That midway spans the flood ; when thus I heard, 
u Come, enter here," in tone so soft and mild, 
As never met the ear on mortal strand. 

With swan-like wings dispred and pointing up, 
Who thus had spoken marshal'd us along, 
Where, each side of the solid masonry, 
The sloping walls retired ; then moved his plumes, 
And fanning us, affirrn'd that those, who mourn 3 , 
Are blessed, for that comfort shall be theirs. 

"What aileth thee, that still thou look'st to earth ?" 

1 UlyssesA It is not easy to determine why Ulysses, contrary to the au- 
thority of Homer, is said to have been drawn aside from his course by the 
song of the Syren. No improbable way of accounting for the contradiction 
is, to suppose that she is here represented as purposely deviating from the 
truth. Or Dante may have followed some legend of the middle ages, in 
which the wanderings of Ulysses were represented otherwise than in Homer. 
1 A da?ne.] Philosophy, or perhaps Truth. 3 Who mourn.'] " Blessed 
are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted." Matt v. 4. 

T 2 



(276) THE VISION. 52—80. 

Began my leader ; while the angelic shape 
A little over us his station took. 

" New vision," I replied, " hath raised in me 
Surmisings strange and anxious doubts, whereon 
My soul intent allows no other thought 
Or room, or entrance." — " Hast thou seen," said he, 
" That old enchantress, her, whose wiles alone 
The spirits o'er us weep for ? Hast thou seen 
How man may free him of her bonds ? Enough. 
Let thy heels spurn the earth ! ; and thy raised ken 
Fix on the lure, which heaven's eternal King 
Whirls in the rolling spheres." As on his feet 
The falcon 2 first looks down, then to the sky 
Turns, and forth stretches eager for the food, 
That wooes him thither ; so the call I heard : 
So onward, far as the dividing rock 
Gave way, I journey'd, till the plain was reach'd. 

On the fifth circle when I stood at large, 
A race appear' d before me, on the ground 
All downward lying prone and weeping sore. 
" My soul 3 hath cleaved to the dust," I heard 
With sighs so deep, they well nigh choked the words. 

" O ye elect of God ! whose penal woes 
Both hope and justice mitigate, direct 
Towards the steep rising our uncertain way." 

" If ye approach secure from this our doom, 
Prostration, and would urge your course with speed, 
See that ye still to rightward keep the brink." 

So them the bard besought ; and such the words, 

1 Let thy heels spurn the earth.] This is a metaphor from hawking, 
though less apparent than in the lines that follow. 

2 The falcon J\ Poi come fa '1 falcon, quando si move, 

Cosi TJmilta al cielo alzo la vista. 

Frezzi, II Quadrir. lib. iv. cap. v. 
Io vidi poi color tutti levare 

Inverso il cielo, come fa '1 falcone, 

Quando la preda sua prende in su Tare. Ibid. cap. xiii. 
One of our periodical critics has remarked, that Dante must have loved 
hawking ; and "that he paints his bird always to the life." Edinburgh 
JRevieic, No. lviii. p. 472. In the same mannerMr. Blomfield supposes that 
iEschylus was addicted to fishing, because he often takes his metaphors 
from nshing-nets. See that gentleman's notes to the Persa?, Glossar. v. 430. 

3 My soul.] " My soul cleaveth to the dust : quicken thou me according 
to thy word." Psalm cxix. 25. 



81—116. PURGATORY, Canto XIX. (277) 

Beyond us some short space, in answer came. 

I noted what remain' d jet hidden from them 1 : 
Thence to my liege's eyes mine eyes I bent, 
And he, forthwith interpreting their suit, 
Beckon'd his glad assent. Free then to act 
As pleased me, I drew near, and took my stand 
Over that shade whose words I late had mark'd. 
And, " Spirit ! " I said, "in whom repentant tears 
Mature that blessed hour when thou with God 
Shalt find acceptance, for a while suspend 
For me that mightier care. Say who thou wast ; 
Why thus ye grovel on your bellies prone ; 
And if, in aught, ye wish my service there, 
Whence living I am come." He answering spake : 
" The cause why Heaven our back toward his cope 
Reverses, shalt thou know : but me know first, 
The successor of Peter 2 , and the name 
And title of my lineage, from that stream 3 
That 'twixt Chiaveri and Siestri draws 
His limpid waters through the lowly glen. 
A month and little more by proof I learnt, 
With what a weight that robe of sovereignty 
Upon his shoulder rests, who from the mire 
Would guard it ; that each other fardel seems 
But feathers in the balance. Late, alas ! 
Was my conversion : but, when I became 
Rome's pastor, I discerned at once the dream 
And cozenage of life ; saw that the heart 
Rested not there, and yet no prouder height 
Lured on the climber : wherefore, of that life 
No more enamour'd, in my bosom love 
Of purer being kindled. For till then 
I was a soul in misery, alienate 
From God, and covetous of all earthly things ; 
Now, as thou seest, here punish' d for my doting. 
Such cleansing from the taint of avarice, 

1 I noted xchat remairid yet hidden from them.'] They were ignorant, 
it appeared, whether Dante was come there to be purged of his sins. 2 The 
successor of Peter.] Ottobuono, of the family of Fieschi, Counts of La- 
vagno, died thirty-nine days after he became pope, with the title of Adrian 
V. in 1276. 3 That stream.] The river Lavagno, in the Genoese terri- 
tory ; to the east of which territory are situated Siestri and Chiaveri. 






(278) THE VISION. 117—143. 

Do spirits, converted, need. This mount inflicts 

No direr penalty. E'en as our eves 

Fasten'd below, nor e'er to loftier clime 

Were lifted 1 ; thus hath justice level'd us, 

Here on the earth. As avarice quench' d our love 

Of good, without which is no working ; thus 

Here justice holds us prison'd, hand and foot [please, 

Chain' d down and bound, while heaven's just Lord shall 

So long to tarry, motionless, outstretch'd." 

My knees I stoop'd, and would have spoke ; but he, 
Ere my beginning, by his ear perceived 
I did him reverence; and " What cause," said he. 
" Hath bow'd thee thus ?" — " Compunction," I rejoin'd, 
"And inward awe of your high dignity." 

"Up," he exclaim'd, "'brother ! upon thy feet 
Arise ; err not 2 : thy fellow servant I, 
(Thine and all others') of one Sovran Power. 
If thou hast ever mark'd those holy sounds 
Of gospel truth, / nor shall be given in marriage 3 ,' 
Thou mayst discern the reasons of my speech. 
Go thy ways now ; and linger here no more. 
Thy tarrying is a let unto the tears, 
With which I hasten that whereof thou spakest 4 . 
I have on earth a kinswoman 5 ; her name 
Alagia, worthy in herself, so ill 
Example of our house corrupt her not : 
And she is all remaineth of me there." 



1 Were lifted.] Rosa Morando and Lombardi are very severe on 
Venturi's perplexity occasioned by the word "aderse." They have none 
of them noticed Landino's reading of " aperse." Ediz. 1±S4. - Err ?iot.] 
"And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said nnto me, See thou 
do it not : I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren that have the 
testimony of Jesus." Rev. xix. 10. 3 JV or shall be given in marriage.] 

" Since in this state we neither marry nor are given in marriage, I am no 
longer the spouse of the church, and therefore no longer retain my former 
dignity." See Matt. xxii. 30. 4 That whereof thou speakest.] See v. 89. 

5 A kinswoman.] Alagia is said to have been the wife of the Marchess 
Marcello Malaspina, one "of the Poet's protectors during his exile. See 
Canto viii. 133. 



1—25. PURGATORY, Canto XX. (279) 

CANTO XX. 



ARGUMENT. 

Among those on the fifth cornice, Hugh Capet records illustrious examples 
of voluntary poverty and of bounty ; then tells who himself is, and speaks 
of his descendants on the French throne ; and, lastly, adds some noted 
instances of avarice. When he has ended, the mountain shakes, and all 
the spirits sing " Glory to God." 

Ill strives the will, 'gainst will more wise that strives : 
His pleasure therefore to mine own preferr'd, 
I drew the sponge 1 yet thirsty from the wave. 

Onward I moved : he also onward moved, 
Who led me, coasting still, wherever place 
Along the rock was vacant ; as a man 
Walks near the battlements on narrow wall. 
For those on the other part, who drop by drop 
Wring out their all-infecting malady, 
Too closely press the verge. Accurst be thou, 
Inveterate wolf 2 ! whose gorge ingluts more prey, 
Than every beast beside, jet is not fill'd ; 
So bottomless thy maw. — Ye spheres of heaven ! 
To whom there are, as seems, who attribute 
All change in mortal state, when is the day 
Of his appearing 3 , for whom fate reserves 
To chase her hence ? — With wary steps and slow 
We pass'd ; and I attentive to the shades, 
Whom piteously I heard lament and wail ; 
And, 'midst the wailing, one before us heard 
Cry out " blessed Virgin \ n as a dame 
In the sharp pangs of childbed ; and " How poor 
Thou wast," it added, "witness that low roof 
Where thou didst lay thy sacred burden down. 
O good Fabricius 4 ! thou didst virtue chuse 

1 I drew the sponge.'] "I did not persevere in my inquiries from the 
spirit, though still anxious to learn more." 2 Wolf.] Avarice. 3 Of 

his appearing.] He is thought to allude to Can Grande della Scala. See 
Hell, Canto i. 98. * Fabricius.] So our author in the second book of 
the De Monarchic, p. 121. " Nonne Fabricium, &c." " Has not Fabricius 
given us another example of resisting avarice, when, poor as he was, he pre- 
served his faith to the republic, and rejected with scorn a great sum of gold 
that was offered him ? Our Poet in the sixth book records this, when he says — 



(280) THE VISION. 26—51. 

With poverty, before great wealth with vice." 

The words so pleased me, that desire to know 
The spirit, from whose lip they seem'd to come, 
Did draw me onward. Yet it spake the gift 
Of Nicholas \ which on the maidens he 
Bounteous bestow'd, to save their youthful prime 
Unbleniish'd. " Spirit ! who dost speak of deeds 
So worthy, tell me who thou wast," I said, 
" And why thou dost with single voice renew 
Memorial of such praise. That boon vouchsafed 
Haply shall meet reward ; if I return 
To finish the short pilgrimage of life, 
Still speeding to its close on restless wing." 

" I," answer' d he, " will tell thee ; not for help, 
Which thence I look for ; but that in thyself 
Grace so exceeding shines, before thy time 
Of mortal dissolution. I was root 2 
Of that ill plant whose shade such poison sheds 
O'er all the Christian land, that seldom thence 
Good fruit is gather'd. Vengeance soon should come, 
Had Ghent and Douay, Lille and Bruges power 3 ; 
And vengeance I of heaven's great Judge implore. 
Hugh Capet was I hight : from me descend 
The Philips and the Louis, of whom France 
Newly is govern' d : born of one, who plied 
The slaughterer's trade 4 at Paris. When the race 

Parvoque potentem 

Fabricium." 
Compare Petrarch, Tr. della Fama, c. i. 

Un Curio ed un Fabricio assai piu belli 

Con la lor poverta, che Mida e Crasso 

Con l'oro ond' a virtu furon rubelli. 
1 Nicholas.] The story of Nicholas is, that an angel having revealed to 
him that the lather of a family was so impoverished as to resolve on expos- 
ing the chastity of his three daughters to sale, he threw in at the window of 
their house three bags of money, containing a sufficient portion for each of 
them. * Boot.) Hugh Capet, ancestor of Philip IV. 3 Had Ghent and 
Douay, Lille and/Bruges power .~] These cities had lately been seized by Philip 
IV. The spirit is made to intimate the approaching defeat of the French 
army by the Flemings, in the battle of Courtrai, which happened in 1302. 
4 The slaughterer's trade.) This reflection on the birth of his ancestor, 
induced Francis I. to forbid the reading of Dante in his dominions. Hugh 
Capet, who came to the throne of France in 987, was however the grandson 
of Robert, who was the brother of Eudes, King of France in 888 ; and it 
may, therefore, well be questioned, whether by Beccaio di Parigi is meant 



52—64. PURGATORY, Canto XX. (281) 

Of ancient kings had vanish'd (all save one l 
Wrapt up in sable weeds) within my gripe 
I found the reins of empire, and such powers 
Of new acquirement, with full store of friends, 
That soon the widow'd circlet of the crown 
Was girt upon the temples of my son 2 , 
He, from whose bones the anointed race begins. 
Till the great dower of Provence 3 had removed 
The stains 4 , that yet obscured our lowly blood, 
Its sway indeed was narrow ; but howe'er 
It wrought no evil : there, with force and lies, 
Began its rapine : after, for amends 5 , 
Poitou it seized, Navarre and Gascony 6 . 

literally one who carried on the trade of a butcher, at Paris, and whether the 
sanguinary disposition of Hugh Capet's father is not stigmatized by this op- 
probrious appellation. See Cancellieri, Osservazioni, &c. Roma, 1814, p. 6. 
1 All save one.~] The posterity of Charlemagne, the second race of French 
monarchs, had failed, with the exception of Charles of Lorraine, who is said, 
on account of the melancholy temper of his mind, to have always clothed 
himself in black. Venturi suggests that Dante may have confounded him 
with Childeric III. the last of the Merovingian, or first race, who was deposed 
and made a monk in 751. * 2 My son.'] Hugh Capet caused his son Robert 
to be crowned at Orleans. 3 The great dower of Provence.] Louis IX. 
and his brother Charles of Anjou, married two of the four daughters of 
Raymond Berenger, Count of Provence. See Par. c. vi. 135. 4 The 

stahis.] Lombardi understands this differently from all the other commen- 
tators with whom I am acquainted. The word " vergogna " he takes in the 
sense of " a praise-worthy shame of doing ill ; " and according to him the 
translation should run thus : 

The shame that yet restrain'd my race from ill. 
By "Provenza" he understands the estates of Toulouse, the dowry of the 
only daughter of Raymond, Count of Toulouse, married to a brother of 
Louis IX. b For amends.] This is ironical. 
6 Poitou it seized, Navarre and Gascony.] I venture to read — 

Potti e Navarra prese e Guascogna, 
instead of Ponti e Normandia prese e Guascogna. 

Seized Ponthieu, Normandy, and Gascogny. 
Landino has " Potti," and he is probably right : for Poitou was annexed to 
the French crown by Philip IY. See Henault, Abrege Chron. A. D. 1283, 
&c. Normandy had been united to it long before by Philip Augustus, a 
circumstance of which it is difficult to imagine that Dante should have been 
ignorant; but Philip IV., says Henault, ibid., took the title of King of 
Navarre : and the subjugation of Navarre is also alluded to in the Paradise, 
Canto xix. 140. In 1293, Philip IY. summoned Edward I. to do him homage 
for the duchy of Gascogny, which he had conceived the design of seizing. 
See G. Yillani, lib. viii. cap. iv. The whole passage has occasioned much 
perplexity. I cannot withhold from my readers the advantage of an attempt 
made to unravel it by the late Archdeacon Fisher, which that gentleman, 
though a stranger, had the goodness to communicate to me in the following 
terms : " I am encouraged to offer you an elucidation of a passage, with the 



•:^2: THE VISION. 15— .7. 

To Italy came Charles; and for amends, 
Young Cc:araai::e : . an innocent victim, slev. ■ 

And sen: the angelic teacher- back :o Leaven. 

mterpretaaim :f whim I was never yet 5.-.:: sir 1. As it ?■:« a: e-»tabli>h the 
accuracy of two Teiy happy conjectures which you hare made at Purg. n. 

': •?. v--.; will t: erhaps cbrrive rir, if my mrim a little militate; aataiaast 
>:baai:n ofthe- cimemty. i_e a a.s s a re is a.s cbhiws. 

Chela terra Cristiana ratta a 1mm 
Si ehe bn:n ramrt: ral: se re sahiam,: 
Ma se ^ : :aai:. Gmam:. Lilla. e Laamria 

El iTl^'imaa: 7 :. laZVn7rarY:'" 'zirizzi 



Mentre che la gran dote PiOTenzale 

It is mv persma.si:r that the stanzas I hare copied are one passage, con- 

timams m its ser.se. maerramtel :mv bv a maremhesis :: :':tir saaaazai. ~~hi:h 
are maraamel a.s nezessarv t: the a elirical smatim :c the meaaamr. A rain. 

-a that Philip IV. 



<::' France. Ee is lepiitea by b:th the phra,ses. mala piama. ami smaame mi: . 
I d: mt rami that L tails IX, ibtamed any part :: Praveme by a: wry. :m:m t: 
his marriage with the daughter of the prince of that country ; at least nothing 



T, Ee marrie I 
'avarre. ami aim 
b sovereignty of 

Kmr :: Frame 



„' j 



ante :mim::, the brither : : Eaw 
lhe a achy of Champagne, 11 

lying aajaaent t: that :f Flaialers. F 
that £ef : ami failing in treaohercn 
murderous war into the low-countries 

vras stent el bv the Ileaamas at the " 






Navarre ani the dmiay c: 
mammr Gnienne with" its 



1 You 


.. .. (-• ....... -.-.■,. _. 


- -r, - "■„ -_ - - 


me Kmr :: IN a 


mare Fa: 


a: lemi Ubert: 


rear ter. 


Th:mas A: a: 



m- 



68—82. PURGATORY, Canto XX. (283) 

Still for amends. I see the time at hand, 

That forth from France invites another Charles l 

To make himself and kindred better known. 

Unarm'd he issues, saving with that lance, 

Which the arch -traitor tilted with 2 ; and that 

He carries with so home a thrust, as rives 

The bowels of poor Florence. No increase 

Of territory hence, but sin and shame 

Shall be his guerdon ; and so much the more 

As he more lightly deems of such foul wrong. 

I see the other 3 (who a prisoner late 

Had stept on shore) exposing to the mart 

His daughter, whom he bargains for, as do 

The Corsairs for their slaves. O avarice ! 

What canst thou more, who hast subdued our blood 

physician, who wished to ingratiate himself with Charles of Anjou. " In the 
year 1323, at the end of July, by the said Pope John and by his cardinals, 
was canonized at Avignon Thomas Aquinas, of the order of Saint Dominic, 
a master in divinity and philosophy, a man most excellent in all science, and 
who expounded the sense of Scripture better than any one since the time of 
Augustin. He lived in the time of Charles I. King of Sicily ; and going to 
the council at Lyons, it is said that he was killed by a physician of the said 
king, who put poison for him into some sweetmeats, thinking to ingratiate 
himself with King Charles, because he was of the lineage of the lords of 
Aquino, who had rebelled against the king, and doubting lest he should be 
made cardinal : whence the church of God received great damage. He died 
at the abbey of Fossanova, in Campagna." G. Villani, lib. ix. cap. ccxviii. 
We shall find him in the Paradise, Canto x. 

1 Another Charles.'] Charles of Valois, brother of Philip IV., was sent 
by Pope Boniface VIII. to settle the disturbed state of Florence. In con- 
sequence of the measures he adopted for that purpose, our Poet and his friends 
were condemned to exile and death. See G. Villani, lib. viii. c. xlviii. 

2 vjith that lance, 

Which the arch-traitor tilted with.] 

con la lancia 

Con la qual giostro Giuda. 
If I remember right, in one of the old romances, Judas is represented 
tilting with our Saviour. 3 The other."] Charles, King of Naples, the 

eldest son of Charles of Anjou, having, contrary to the directions of his father, 
engaged with Ruggier de Lauria, the admiral of Peter of Arragon, was made 
prisoner, and earned into Sicily, June, 1284. He afterwards, in consideration 
of a large sum of money, married his daughter to Azzo VIII. Marquis of Fer- 
rara. I take Lauria to be the hero meant by Petrarch in his Triumph of Fame, 

Quel di Luria seguiva il Saladino. Cap. ii. v. 151. 

Of whom Biagioli says in a note, " Non so chi sia, e non trovo ne vivo ne 
morto chi mel dica." " I know not who he is, and I find no one alive or dead 
to tell me." Mariana, lib. xiv. cap. 10, calls Lauria " a brave captain, signal- 
ized by his former victories." See also the seventh book of G. Villani's history, 
and Boccaccio's Decameron, G. 5, N. 6 ; where he is named Ruggieri dell' Oria. 



(284) THE VISION. 83—106. 

So wholly to thyself, they feel no care 
Of their own flesh ? To hide with direr guilt 
Past ill and future, lo ! the flower-de-luce l 
Enters Alagna ; in his Yicar Christ 
Himself a captive, and his mockery 
Acted again. Lo ! to his holy lip 
The vinegar and gall once more applied ; 
And he ? twixt living robbers doom'd to bleed. 
Lo ! the new Pilate, of whose cruelty 
Such violence cannot fill the measure up, 
"With no decree to sanction, pushes on 
Into the temple 2 his yet eager sails. 

" sovran Master 3 ! when shall I rejoice 
To see the vengeance, which thy wrath, well-pleased, 
In secret silence broods ? — While daylight lasts, 
So long what thou didst hear 4 of her, sole spouse 
Of the Great Spirit, and on which thou turn'dst 
To me for comment, is the general theme 
Of all our prayers : but, when it darkens, then 
A different strain we utter ; then record 
Pygmalion 5 , whom his gluttonous thirst of gold 
Made traitor, robber, parricide : the woes 
Of Midas, which his greedy wish ensued, 
Mark'd for derision to all future times : 



1 The Jlower-de-luce.] Boniface VIII. was seized at Alagna in Campagna, 
by the order of Philip IV., in the year 1303, and soon after died of grief. 
G.Villani,lib.viii. cap.lxiii. "As it pleased God, the heart of Boniface being 
petrified with grief, through the injury he had sustained, when he came to 
Rome, he fell into a strange malady, for he gnawed himself as one frantic, 
and in this state expired." His character is strongly drawn by the annalist 
in the next chapter. Thus, says Landino, was verified the prophecy of Ce- 
lestine respecting him, that he should enter on the popedom like a fox, reign 
like a lion, and die like a dog. 2 Into the temple. .] It is uncertain whether 
our Poet alludes still to the event mentioned in the preceding note, or to the 
destruction of the order of the Templars in 1310, but the latter appears more 
probable. 3 O sovran Master, .] Lombardi, who rightly corrects Venturi's 
explanation of this passage, with which I will not trouble the reader, should 
have acknowledged, if he was conscious of it, that his own interpretation of 
it was the same as that before given by Vellutello : " When, O Lord, shall I 
behold that vengeance accomplished, which being already determined in 
thy secret judgment, thy retributive justice even now contemplates with 
delight?" 4 What thou didst hear. ,] See v. 21. 

5 Pygmalion.'] Ille Sychaeum 

Impius ante aras, atque auri caecus amore, 

Clam ferro incautum superat. Virg. JEn. 1. 1. 350. 



107—139. PURGATORY, Canto XX. (285) 

And the fond Achan *, how he stole the prey, 
That yet he seems by Joshua's ire pursued. 
Sapphira with her husband next we blame ; 
And praise the forefeet, that with furious ramp 
Spurn'd Heliodorus 2 . All the mountain round 
Rings with the infamy of Thracia's king 3 , 
Who slew his Phrygian charge : and last a shout 
Ascends : 'Declare, O Crassus 4 ! for thou know'st, 
The flavour of thy gold/ The voice of each 
Now high, now low, as each his impulse prompts, 
Is led through many a pitch, acute or grave. 
Therefore, not singly, I erewhile rehearsed 
That blessedness we tell of in the day : 
But near me, none, beside, his accent raised." 

From him we now had parted, and essay'd 
With utmost efforts to surmount the way ; 
When I did feel, as nodding to its fall, 
The mountain tremble ; whence an icy chill 
Seized on me, as on one to death convey'd. 
So shook not Delos, when Latona there 
Couch'd to bring forth the twin-born eyes of heaven. 

Forthwith from every side a shout arose 
So vehement, that suddenly my guide 
Drew near, and cried : " Doubt not, while I conduct thee." 
" Glory ! " all shouted (such the sounds mine ear 
Gather'd from those, who near me swell'd the sounds) 
" Glory in the highest be to God.'' We stood 
Immoveably suspended, like to those, 
The shepherds, who first heard in Bethlehem's field 
That song : till ceased the trembling, and the song 
Was ended : then our hallow'd path resumed, 
Eying the prostrate shadows, who renew 'd 
Their custom'd mourning. Never in my breast 

1 Achan.'] Joshua, vii. 2 Heliodorus .] " For there appeared -unto them 
an horse, with a terrible rider upon him, and adorned with a very fair cover- 
ing, and he ran fiercely and smote at Heliodorus with his fore feet." 2 Mac- 
cabees, iii. 25. 3 Thracia's king.] Polymnestor, the murderer of Poly- 
dorus. Hell, Canto xxx. 19. * Crassus.] Marcus Crassus, who fell 

miserably in the Parthian war. See Appian, Parthica. 
E vidi Ciro piii di sangue avaro, 
Che Crasso d'oro, e 1'uno e l'altro n'ebbe 
Tanto, che parve a ciascheduno amaro. Petrarca. 



(286) THE VISION. 140—144. 

Did ignorance so struggle with desire 
Of knowledge, if my memory do not err, 
As in that moment ; nor through haste dared I 
To question, nor myself could aught discern. 
So on I fared, in thoughtfulness and dread. 



CANTO XXL 



ARGUMENT. 

The two Poets are overtaken by the spirit of 'Statins, who, being cleansed, is 
on his way to Paradise, and who explains the canse of the mountain 
shaking, and of the hymn ; his joy at beholding Virgil. 

The natural thirst, ne'er quench'd but from the well 1 

Whereof the woman of Samaria craved, 

Excited ; haste, along the cumber'd path, 

After my guide, impell'd ; and pity moved 

My bosom for the 'vengeful doom though just. 

When lo ! even as Luke 2 relates, that Christ 

Appear 'd unto the two upon their way, 

New-risen from his vaulted grave ; to us 

A shade appear'd, and after us approach'd, 

Contemplating the crowd beneath its feet. 

We were not ware of it ; so first it spake, 

Saying, " God give you peace, my brethren ! " then 

Sudden we turn'd : and Yirgil such salute, 

As fitted that kind greeting, gave; and cried : 

" Peace in the blessed council be thy lot, 

Awarded by that righteous court which me 

To everlasting banishment exiles." 

" How !" he exclaim' d, nor from his speed meanwhile 
Desisting 3 ; "If that ye be spirits whom God 
Vouchsafes not room above ; who up the height 

1 The well.] " The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that 
I thirst not." John, iy. 15. 2 Luke.] Chapter xxiv. 13. 

3 nor from his speed meanwhile 

Desisting.] The unintelligible reading of almost all the editions here 
(bnt not of all, as Lombardi would lead ns to suppose, except his favourite 
Nidobeatina) is 

E perche andate forte ? 
Yellutello has also that which is no doubt the right : 
E parte andava forte. 



21—53. PURGATORY, Canto XXI. (287) 

Has been thus far your guide ?" To whom the bard : 

" If thou observe the tokens l , which this man, 

Traced by the finger of the angel, bears ; 

'Tis plain that in the kingdom of the just 

He needs must share. But sithence she 2 , whose wheel 

Spins day and night, for him not yet had drawn 

That yarn, which on the fatal distaff piled, 

Clotho apportions to each wight that breathes ; 

His soul, that sister is to mine and thine, 

Not of herself could mount ; for not like ours 

Her ken : whence I, from forth the ample gulf 

Of hell, was ta'en, to lead him, and will lead 

Far as my lore avails. But, if thou know, 

Instruct us for what cause, the mount erewhile 

Thus shook, and trembled : wherefore all at once 

Seem'd shouting, even from his wave-wash* d foot." 

That questioning so tallied with my wish, 
The thirst did feel abatement of its edge 
E'en from expectance. He forthwith replied : 
" In its devotion, nought irregular 
This mount can witness, or by punctual rule 
Unsanction'd ; here from every change exempt, 
Other than that, which heaven in itself 
Doth of itself receive 3 , no influence 
Can reach us. Tempest none, shower, hail, or snow, 
Hoar frost, or dewy moistness, higher falls 
Than that brief scale of threefold steps : thick clouds, 
Nor scudding rack, are ever seen : swift glance 
Ne'er lightens ; nor Thaumantian 4 Iris gleams, 
That yonder often shifts on each side heaven. 
Vapour adust doth never mount above 
The highest of the trinal stairs, whereon 
Peter's vicegerent stands. Lower perchance, 

1 The tokens.'] The letter P for Peccata, sins, inscribed upon his forehead 
by the Angel, in order to his being cleared of them in his passage through 
Purgatory to Paradise. 2 She.] Lachesis, one of the three fates. 

3 that, which heaven in itself 

Doth of itself receive.] Venturi, I think rightly, interprets this to be 
light. 4 Thaumantia?i.] Figlia di Taumante. 

QavfxavTos dvya.T7)p. Hesiod, Theog. 780. 
Compare Plato, Theaet. v. ii. p. 76. Bip. edit. Virg. iEn. ix. 5. and Spenser, 
Faery Queen, b. v. c. iii. st. 25. 

Fair is Thaumantias in her crystal gown. Drummond. 



(258) THE VISION. 54—86. 

With various motion rock'd, trembles the soil : 

But here, through wind in earth's deep hollow pent, 

I know not how, jet never trembled : then 

Trembles, when any spirit feels itself 

So purified, that it may rise, or move 

For rising ; and such loud acclaim ensues. 

Purification, by the will alone, 

Is proved, that free to change society 

Seizes the soul rejoicing in her will. 

Desire of bliss is present from the first ; 

But strong propension hinders, to that wish l 

By the just ordinance of heaven opposed; 

Propension now as eager to fulfil 

The allotted torment, as erewhile to sin. 

And I, who in this punishment had lain 

Five hundred vears and more, but now have felt 

Free wish for happier clime. Therefore thou feit'st 

The mountain tremble ; and the spirits devout 

Heard'st, over all his limits, utter praise 

To that liege Lord, whom I entreat their joy 

To hasten." Thus he spake : and, since the draught 

Is grateful ever as the thirst is keen, 

Xo words may speak my fulness of content. 

"Xow," said the instructor sage, "I see the net 2 
That takes ye here ; and how the toils are loosed ; 
"Why rocks the mountain, and why ye rejoice. 
Vouchsafe, that from thy lips I next may learn 
Who on the earth thou wast ; and wherefore here, 
So many an age, wert prostrate." — " In that time, 
"When the good Titus 3 , with Heaven's King to help, 
Avenged those piteous gashes, whence the blood 
By Judas sold did issue ; with the name 4 
Most lasting and most honour' d, there, was I 

1 To that icish.] Lornbardi here alters the sense by reading with the 
Nidobeatina, ki con tal voglia," instead of " contra voglia," and explains it: 
" "With the same ineffectual will, with which man was contrary to sin, while 
he resolved on sinning, even with the same, would he wish to rise from his 
torment in Purgatory, at the same time that through inclination to satisfy 
the divine justice he yet remains there." 2 / see the net.~\ " I perceive 
that ye are detained' here by your wish to satisfy the divine justice." 
3 Wlien the good Titus.] When it was so ordered by the divine Providence 
that Titus, by the destruction of Jerusalem, should avenge the death of our 
Saviour on the Jews. 4 The name.] The name of Poet. 



87—116. PURGATORY, Canto XXI. (289) 

Abundantly renown' d," the shade replied, 

* Not yet with faith endued. So passing sweet 

My vocal spirit; from Tolosa 1 , Rome 

To herself drew me, where I merited 

A myrtle garland 2 to in wreathe my brow. 

Statius they name me still. Of Thebes I sang, 

And next of great Achilles ; but i' the way 

Fell 3 with the second burthen. Of my flame 

Those sparkles were the seeds, which I derived 

From the bright fountain of celestial fire 

That feeds unnumber'd lamps ; the song I mean 

Which sounds .ZEneas' wanderings : that the breast 

I hung at ; that the nurse, from whom my veins 

Drank inspiration : whose authority 

Was ever sacred with me. To have lived 

Coeval with the Mantuan, I would bide 

The revolution of another sun 

Beyond my stated years in banishment." 

The Mantuan, when he heard him, turn'd to me ; 
And holding silence, by his countenance 
Enjoin'd me silence: but the power,. which wills, 
Bears not supreme control : laughter and tears 
Follow so closely on the passion prompts them, 
They wait not for the motions of the will 
In natures most sincere. I did but smile 4 , 
As one who winks ; and thereupon the shade 
Broke off, and peer'd into mine eyes, where best 
Our looks interpret. " So to good event 
May st thou conduct such great emprize," he cried, 
" Say, why across thy visage beam'd, but now, 

1 From Tolosa.] Dante, as many others have done, confounds Statius 
the poet, who was a Neapolitan, with a rhetorician of the same name, 
who was of Tolosa, or Thoulouse. Thus Chaucer, Temple of Fame, b. iii. 

The Tholason, that height Stace. 
And Boccaccio, as cited by Lombardi : 

E Stazio di Tolosa ancora caro. Amoros. Vis. Cant. 6. 
8 A myrtle garland.'] 

Et tos, O lauri, carpam, et te, proxima myrte. Virg. Eel. ii. 

Qual vaghezza di lauro ? o qual di mirto ? Petrarca. 

Yet once more, O ye laurels, and once more, 

Ye myrtles brown. Milton, Lycidas. 

3 Fell.] Statius liyed to write only a small part of the Achilleid. 

4 / did but s?nile.] " I smiled no more than one would do who wished by 
a smile to intimate his consciousness of any thing to another person." 

U 



(290) THE VISION. 117—13; 

The lightning of a smile." On either part 

Now am I straiten'd ; one conjures me speak, 

The other to silence binds me : whence a sigh 

I utter, and the sigh is heard. " Speak on," 

The teacher cried : " and do not fear to speak ; 

But tell him what so earnestly he asks." 

Whereon I thus : " Perchance, O ancient spirit ! 

Thou marvel'st at my smiling. There is room 

For yet more wonder. He, who guides my ken 

On high, he is that Mantuan, led by whom 

Thou didst presume of men and gods to sing. 

If other cause thou deem'dst for which I smiled, 

Leave it as not the true one : and believe 

Those words, thou spakest of him, indeed the cause." 

Now down he bent to embrace my teacher's feet ; 
But he forbade him: " Brother ! do it not: 
Thou art a shadow, and behold'st a shade." 
He, rising, answer'd thus : " Now hast thou proved 
The force and ardour of the love I bear thee, 
When I forget we are but things of air, 
And, as a substance, treat an empty shade." 



CANTO XXII. 



ARGUMENT. 

Dante, Virgil, and Statius mount to the sixth cornice, where the sin of glut- 
tony is cleansed, the two Latin Poets discoursing by the way. Turning to 
the right, they find a tree hung with sweet-smelling fruit, and watered by 
a shower that issues from the rock. Voices are heard to proceed from 
among the leaves, recording examples of temperance. 

Now we had left the angel, who had turn'd 

To the sixth circle our ascending step ; 

One gash from off my forehead razed ; while they, 

Whose wishes tend to justice, shouted forth, 

"Blessed 1 !" and ended with "I thirst:" and I, 

More nimble than along the other straits, 

So journey'd, that, without the sense of toil, 

I follow'd upward the swift-footed shades ; 

1 Blessed.] " Blessed be they which do hunger and thirst after righteous- 
ness, for they shall be filled." Matt. t. 6. 



9 — 41. PURGATORY, Canto XXII. (291) 

When Virgil thus began : " Let its pure flame 
From virtue flow, and love can never fail 
To warm another's bosom, so the light 
Shine manifestly forth. Hence, from that hour, 
When, 'inongst us in the purlieus of the deep, 
Came down the spirit of Aquinum's bard l , 
Who told of thine affection, my good will 
Hath been for thee of quality as strong 
As ever linked itself to one not seen. 
Therefore these stairs will now seem short to me. 
But tell me : and, if too secure, I loose 
The rein with a friend's licence, as a friend 
Forgive me, and speak now as with a friend : 
How chanced it covetous desire could find 
Place in that bosom, 'midst such ample store 
Of wisdom, as thy zeal had treasured there ?" 

First somewhat moved to laughter by his words, 
Statius replied : " Each syllable of thine 
Is a dear pledge of love. Things oft appear, 
That minister false matter to our doubts, 
When their true causes are removed from sight. 
Thy question doth assure me, thou believest 
I was on earth a covetous man ; perhaps 
Because thou found'st me in that circle placed. 
Know then I was too wide of avarice : 
And e'en for that excess, thousands of moons 
Have wax'd and waned upon my sufferings. 
And were it not that I with heedful care 
Noted, where thou exclaim'st as if in ire 
With human nature, ' Why 2 , thou cursed thirst 
1 Of gold ! dost not with juster measure guide 
' The appetite of mortals ? ' I had met 
The fierce encounter 3 of the voluble rock. 



1 Aquinairis bard.] Juvenal had celebrated his contemporary, Statius, 
Sat. rii. 82; though some critics imagine that there is a secret derision 
couched under his praise. 

2 Why.] Quid non mortalia pectora cogis, 

Auri sacra fames ? Virg. JEn. lib. iii. 51. 

Venturi supposes, that Dante might have mistaken the meaning of the 
word, sacra, and construed it "holy," instead of "cursed." But I see no 
necessity for having recourse to so improbable a conjecture. 

3 The fierce encounter.] See Hell, Canto vii. 26. 

u 2 



(292) THE VISION. 42—73. 

Then was I ware that, with too ample wing, 
The hands may haste to lavishment ; and turn'd, 
As from my other evil, so from this, 
In penitence. How many from their grave 
Shall with shorn locks l arise, who living, ay, 
And at life's last extreme, of this offence, 
Through ignorance, did not repent ! And know, 
The fault, which lies direct from any sin 
In level opposition, here, with that, 
Wastes its green rankness on one common heap. 
Therefore, if I have been with those, who wail 
Their avarice, to cleanse me ; through reverse 
Of their transgression, such hath been my lot." 

To whom the sovran of the pastoral song : 
" While thou didst sing that cruel warfare waged 
By the twin sorrow of Jocasta's womb 2 , 
From thy discourse with Clio 3 there, it seems 
As faith had not been thine ; without the which, 
Good deeds suffice not. And if so, what sun 
Rose on thee, or what candle pierced the dark, 
That thou didst after see to hoise the sail, 
And follow where the fisherman had led ? " 

He answering thus : " By thee conducted first, 
I enter'd the Parnassian grots, and quaff 'd 
Of the clear spring : illumined first by thee, 
Open'd mine eyes to God. Thou didst, as one, 
Who, journeying through the darkness, bears a light 
Behind, that profits not himself, but makes 
His followers wise, when thou exclaimed'st, ' Lo ! 
A renovated world 4 , Justice return'd, 
Times of primeval innocence restored, 
And a new race descended from above.' 

1 With shorn locks.'] See Hell, Canto yii. 58. 

2 The twin sorrow of Jocasta's womb.~\ Eteocles and Polynices. 

3 With Clio.'] 

Quern prius heroum Clio dabis ? immodicum irse 

Tydea ? laurigeri subitos an vatis hiatus ? Stat. Thebaid. i. 42. 

4 A renovated world.] 

Magnus ab integro sseclorum nascitur ordo. 

Jam redit et Virgo ; redeunt Saturnia regna ; 

Jam nova progenies ccelo demittitur alto. Virg. Eel. iv. 5. 
For the application of Virgil's prophecy to the incarnation, see Natalis 
Alexander, Hist. Eccl. Ssec. i. Dissert. 1. Paris, 1679, v. i. p. 166. 



74—104. PURGATORY, Canto XXII. (293) 

Poet and Christian both to thee 1 owed. 

That thou mayst mark more clearly what I trace, 

My hand shall stretch forth to inform the lines 

With livelier colouring. Soon o'er all the world, 

By messengers from heaven, the true belief 

Teem'd now prolific ; and that word of thine, 

Accordant, to the new instructors chimed. 

Induced by which agreement, I was wont 

Resort to them ; and soon their sanctity 

So won upon me, that, Domitian's rage 

Pursuing them, I mix'd my tears with theirs ; 

And, while on earth I stay'd, still succour'd them ; 

And their most righteous customs made me scorn 

All sects besides. Before l I led the Greeks, 

In tuneful fiction, to the streams of Thebes, 

I was baptized : but secretly, through fear, 

Remain'd a Christian, and conform'd long time 

To Pagan rites. Four centuries and more, 

I, for that lukewarmness, was fain to pace 

Round the fourth circle. Thou then, who hast raised 

The covering which did hide such blessing from me, 

Whilst much of this ascent is yet to climb, 

Say, if thou know, where our old Terence 2 bides, 

Csecilius 3 , Plautus, Varro 4 : if condemn'd 

They dwell, and in what province of the deep," 

" These," said my guide, " with Persius and myself, 

And others many more, are with that Greek 5 , 

Of mortals, the most cherish'd by the nine, 

In the first ward 6 of darkness. There, oft-times, 

We of that mount hold converse, on whose top 

For aye our nurses live. We have the bard 

1 Before.'] Before I had composed tlie Thebaid. 2 Our old Terence^] 
" Antico," which is found in many of the old editions, seems preferable to 
"amico." 3 Cceciliics.] Caecilius Statins, a Latin comic poet, of whose 
works some fragments only remain. Our Poet had Horace in his eye. 
Dicitur Afrani toga convenisse Menandro, 
Plautus ad exemplar Siculi properare Epicharmi, 
Vincere Caecilius gravitate, Terentius arte. 

Epist. lib. ii. 1. 
4 Varro, ,] " Quam multa pene omnia tradidit Varro." Quintilian, Instit. 
Orat. lib. xii. " Vix aperto ad philosophiam aditu, primus M. Varro veterum 
omnium doctissimus." Sadolet. de liberis recte instit. Edit. Lugd. 1533, 
p. 137. 5 That Greek.] Homer. 6 In the first ward.] In Limbo. 



(294) THE VISION. 105—112. 

Of Pella *, and the Teian 2 , Agatho 3 , 
Simonides, and many a Grecian else 
Ingarlanded with laurel. Of thy train 4 , 
Antigone is there, Deiphile, 
Argia, and as sorrowful as erst 
Ismene, and who show'd Langia's wave 5 : 
Deidamia with her sisters there, 
And blind Tiresias' daughter 6 , and the bride 

1 The bard 



Of Pella.] Euripides. 

2 The Teian.] Euripide v' e nosco e Anacreonte. 

The Monte Casino MS. reads " Antifonte " " Antipho," instead of " Ana- 
creonte." Dante probably knew little more of these Greek writers than 
the names. 3 Agatho.] Chaucer, speaking of the Daisy as a represent- 
ation of Alcestis, refers to Agaton : 

No wonder is though Jove her stelline, 

As tellith Agaton for her goodnesse. Legende of Good Women. 
And Mr. Tyrwhitt tells us that " he has nothing to say of this writer except 
that one of the same name is quoted in the Prol. to the tragedie of Cambises 
by Thomas Preston. There is no reason," he adds, " for supposing with 
Gloss. Ur. that a philosopher of Samos is meant, or any of the Agathoes of 
antiquity." I am inclined, however, to believe that Chaucer must have 
meant Agatho, the dramatic writer, whose name, at least, appears to have 
been familiar in the middle ages ; for, besides the mention of him in the text, 
he is quoted by Dante in the Treatise De Monarchic, lib. iii. " Deus per nun- 
cium facere non potest, genita non esse, genita, juxtasententiam Agathonis." 
The original is to be found in Aristotle, Ethic. Nicom. lib. vi. c. 2. 
Movov yap avTov Kal S^os (rrsptcr/ceTcu 
1 Kyivryra ttoislv dar<r av t) ireirpayfiiva. 
Agatho is mentioned by Xenophon in his Symposium, by Plato in the 
Protagoras, and in the Banquet, a favourite book with our author, and by 
Aristotle in his Art of Poetry, where the following remarkable passage occurs 
respecting him, from which I will leave it to the reader to decide whether it 
is possible that the allusion in Chaucer might have arisen : kv kviais fxkv sv 
fj 8vo tuuv yvcopifxayv kariv ovo/jloltcov^ tcl dk aXXa TTEiroirifJiiva' ev kviais dk 
ovdev' olov kv tw ' AyaOoovos"Avdsi. ojuloicos yap kv tovtco to. ts irpdyfiaTa 
Kal to. ovSfxaTa ict-Tro'i^Tai, Kal ovSkv t]ttov zvcppaivsL. Edit. 1794, p. 33. 
" There are, however, some tragedies, in which one or two of the names are 
historical, and the rest feigned ; there are even some, in which none of the 
names are historical ; such is Agatho's tragedy called the Flower ; for in 
that all is invention, both incidents and names ; and yet it pleases." 
Aristotle's Treatise on Poetry, by Thomas Twining, 8vo. Edit. 1812, vol. i. 
p. 128. 4 Of thy train.] " Of those celebrated in thy Poem." 5 Who 
show'd Langia's wave.] Hypsipile. See note to Canto xxvi. v. 87. 
6 Tiresias' daughter.] Dante, as some have thought, had forgotten that 
he had placed Manto, the daughter of Tiresias, among the sorcerers. See 
Hell, Canto xx. Vellutello endeavours, rather awkwardly, to reconcile the 
apparent inconsistency, by observing, that although she was placed there as 
a sinner, yet, as one of famous memory, she had also a place among the 
worthies in Limbo. Lombardi, or rather the Delia Crusca academicians, 
excuse our author better, by observing that Tiresias had a daughter named 
Daphne. See Diodorus Siculus, lib. iv. § 66. I have here to acknowledge 



113—139. PURGATORY, Canto XXII. (295) 

Sea-born of Peleus V Either poet now 
"Was silent ; and no longer by the ascent 
Or the steep walls obstructed, round them cast 
Inquiring eyes. Four handmaids 2 of the day 
Had finish' d now their office, and the fifth 
Was at the chariot-beam, directing still 
Its flamy point aloof ; when thus my guide : 
" Methinks, it well behoves us to the brink 
Bend the right shoulder, circuiting the mount, 
As we have ever used." So custom there 
Was usher to the road ; the which we chose 
Less doubtful, as that worthy shade 3 complied. 

They on before me went : I sole pursued, 
Listening their speech, that to my thoughts convey' d 
Mysterious lessons of sweet poesy. 
But soon they ceased ; for midway of the road 
A tree we found, with goodly fruitage hung, 
And pleasant to the smell : and as a fir, 
Upward from bough to bough, less ample spreads ; 
So downward this less ample spread 4 ; that none, 
Methinks, aloft may climb. Upon the. side, 
That closed our path, a liquid crystal fell 
From the steep rock, and through the sprays above 
Stream'd showering. With associate step the bards 
Drew near the plant ; and, from amidst the leaves, 
A voice was heard : "Ye shall be chary of me ;" 
And after added : " Mary took more thought 5 

a communication made to me by the learned writer of an anonj-mous letter, 
who observes that Manto and Daphne are only different names for the 
same person ; and that Servius, in his Commentary on the iEneid, x. 198, 
savs, that some make Manto the prophetess to be a daughter of Hercules. 

1 The bride 

Sea-born of Peleus.] Thetis. 
2 Four handmaids.'] Compare Canto xii. v. 74. 3 That worthy shade.] 
Statius. 4 Doicnward this less ample spread.] The early commentators 
understand that this tree had its root upward and the boughs downward ; 
and this opinion, however derided by their successors, is not a little coun- 
tenanced by the imitation of Frezzi, who lived so near the time of our Poet : 
Su dentro al cielo avea la sua radice, 
E giii inverso terra i rami spande. H Quadrir. lib. iv. cap. 1. 

It had in heaven 

Its root above, and downward to the earth 
Stretch' d forth the branches. > 
5 Mary took more thought.] " The blessed Virgin, who answers for you 
now in heaven, when she said to Jesus, at the marriage in Cana of Galilee. 



THE VISION. 140—150. 

For joy and honour of the nuptial feast, 
Than for herself, who answers : :w for you. 
The women of old Koine ■ were satisfied 
"With water for their beverage. Daniel 2 fed 
On pulse, and wisdom gain'd. The primal age 
TTas beautiful as gold : and hunger then 
Made acorns tasteful ; thirst, each rivulet 
Run nectar. Honey and locusts were the food, 
vThereon the Baptist in the wilderness 
Fed. and that eminence of glory reached 
And greatness, which the Evangelist records." 



CANTO xxni. 



ARGUMENT. 

They are OTertaken by the spirit of Forese, who had been a Mend of our 
Poet's on earth, and who now inveighs bitterly against tiae immodest 
dress of their countrywomen at Florence. 

On the green leaf mine eyes were fix'd, like his 
Who throws away his days in idle chase 
Of the diminutive birds, when thus I heard 
The more than father warn me : " Son ! our time 
Asks thriftier using. Linger not: awav. 

Thereat my face and steps at dfcet I ftiH 
Toward the sages, by whose converse cheer'd 
I journey'd on. and felt no toil : and Ifl ! 
A sound of weeping, and a song : • ' Mj lips 3 , 
Lord !" and these so mingled. :: gave birth 
To pleasure and to pain. " O Sire beloved ! 
Say what is this I hear.'* Thus I in quired. 

" Spirits." said he, <; wbo, n toy g :. perchance, 

1 they hare no wine,' regarded not the gratification of her own taste, but the 
honour of the nuptial banque: 1 The women of old Rotne.] See Vale- 

rius Maximus, 1. ii. c. 1. * Daniel.] " Then' said Daniel to Melzar. 
whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Michael, 
and Azariah, Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them. 
give us pulse to eat, and water to drink. " Darnel 1 . "_ 1 .1 _ . • • Thus Melzar 
took away the portion of their meat, and the wine that they should drink : 
and gave them pulse. As for these four children, God gave them know- 
ledge and skill in all learning and wisdom : and Daniel had understanding 
in all visions and dreams." Ibid. 16. 17 3 Jtfy lips.] "O Lord, open 

thou my lips ; and my mouth shall show forth thy praise." Psalm U. I : . 



14—39. PURGATORY, Canto XXIII. (297) 

Their debt of duty pay." As on their road 
The thoughtful pilgrims, overtaking some 
Not known unto them, turn to them, and look, 
But stay not ; thus, approaching from behind 
With speedier motion, eyed us, as they pass'd, 
A crowd of spirits, silent and devout. 
The eyes l of each were dark and hollow ; pale 
Their visage, and so lean withal, the bones 
Stood staring through the skin. I do not think 
Thus dry and meagre Erisicthon show'd, 
When pinch'd by sharp -set famine to the quick. 

" Lo ! " to myself I mused, " the race, who lost 
Jerusalem, when Mary 2 with dire beak 
Prey'd on her child." The sockets seem'd as rings 3 , 
From which the gems were dropt. Who reads the name 4 
Of man upon his forehead, there the M 
Had traced most plainly. Who would deem, that scent 
Of water and an apple could have proved 
Powerful to generate such pining want, 
Not knowing how it wrought ? While now I stood, 
Wondering what thus could waste them, (for the cause 
Of their gaunt hollo wness and scaly rind 
Appeared not,) lo ! a spirit turn'd his eyes 
In their deep-sunken cells, and fasten'd them 
On me, then cried with vehemence aloud : 
"What grace is this vouchsafed me?" By his looks 

1 The eyes.'] Compare Ovid, Metam. lib. viii. 801. 

Hirtus erat crinis ; cava lumina, pallor in ore : 

Dura cutis, per quam spectari viscera possent : 
Ossa sub incurvis exstabant aricla lumbis. 
8 When Mary.] Josephus, de Bello Jud. lib. vii. c. xxi. p. 954. Ed. Genev. 
fol. 1611. The shocking story is well told. 

3 Rings.] Senza nor prato o senza gemma anello. 

Petrarca, Son. Lasciata hai, morte. 
ring of which the rubie is outfall. 

Chaucer, Troilus and Creseide y b. v. 

In this habit 

Met I my father with his bleeding rings, 

Their precious stones new lost. Shakspeare, Lear, act v. sc. 3. 

4 Who reads the name.] " He who pretends to distinguish the letters 
which form OMO in the features of the human face, might easily have 
traced out the M on their emaciated countenances." The temples, nose, and 
forehead are supposed to represent this letter; and the eyes the two O's 
placed within each side of it. 



(298) THE VISION. 40—72. 

I ne'er had recognized him : but the voice 
Brought to my knowledge what his cheer conceal'd. 
Remembrance of his altered lineaments 
Was kindled from that spark ; and I agnized 
The visage of Forese l . " Ah ! respect 
This wan and leprous-wither'd skin," thus he 
Suppliant implored, " this macerated flesh. 
Speak to me truly of thyself. And who 
Are those twain spirits, that escort thee there ? 
Be it not said thou scorn'st to talk with me." 

" That face of thine," I answer'd him, " which dead 
I once bewail'd, disposes me not less 
For weeping, when I see it thus transform'd. 
Say then, by Heaven, what blasts ye thus ? The whilst 
I wonder, ask not speech from me : unapt 
Is he to speak, whom other will employs." 

He thus : " The water and the plant, we pass'd, 
With power are gifted, by the eternal will 
Infused ; the which so pines me. Every spirit, 
Whose song bewails his gluttony indulged 
Too grossly, here in hunger and in thirst 
Is purified. The odour, which the fruit, 
And spray that showers upon the verdure, breathe, 
Inflames us with desire to feed and drink. 
Nor once alone, encompassing our route, 
We come to add fresh fuel to the pain : 
Pain, said I ? solace rather : for that will, 
To the tree, leads us, by which Christ was led 
To call on Eli, joyful, when he paid 
Our ransom from his vein." I answering thus : 
" Forese ! from that day, in which the world 
For better life thou changedst, not five years 
Have circled. If the power 2 of sinning more 

1 Forese.] One of the brothers of Piccarda ; he who is again spoken of 
in the next Canto, and introduced in the Paradise, Canto iii. Cionacci, in 
his Storia della Beata Umiliana, Parte iy. cap. i., is referred to by Lombardi, 
in order to show that Forese was also the brother of Corso Donati, our 
author's political enemy. See next Canto, v. 81. Tiraboschi, after Creseim- 
beni, enumerates him among the Tuscan poets. Stor. della Poes. It. v. i. p. 
139. 2 If the poicer.] " If thou didst delay thy repentance to the last, 
when thou hadst lost the power of sinning, how happens it thou art arrived 
here so early ?" 



73—97. PURGATORY, Canto XXIII. (299) 

Were first concluded in thee, ere thou knew'st 

That kindly grief which re-espouses us 

To God, how hither art thou come so soon ? 

I thought to find thee lower *, there, where time 

Is recompense for time." He straight replied : 

" To drink up the sweet wormwood of affliction 

I have been brought thus early, by the tears 

Stream'd down my Nella's 2 cheeks. Her prayers devout, 

Her sighs have drawn me from the coast, where oft 

Expectance lingers ; and have set me free 

From the other circles. In the sight of God 

So much the dearer is my widow prized, 

She whom I loved so fondly, as she ranks 

More singly eminent for virtuous deeds. 

The tract, most barbarous of Sardinia's isle 3 , 

Hath dames more chaste, and modes ter by far, 

Than that wherein I left her. sweet brother ! 

What wouldst thou have me say 4 ? A time to come 

Stands full within my view, to which this hour 

Shall not be counted of an ancient date, 

When from the pulpit shall be loudly warn'd 

The unblushing dames of Florence 5 , lest they bare 

Unkerchief 'd bosoms to the common gaze. 

What savage women hath the world e'er seen, 

What Saracens 6 , for whom there needed scourge 

1 Lower.] In the Ante-Purgatory. See Canto ti. 2 My Nella."] The 
wife of Forese. 3 The tract, most barbarous of Sardinia's isle.'] The 
Barbagia is a part of Sardinia, to which that name was given, on account of 
the uncivilized state of its inhabitants, who are said to have gone nearly- 
naked. 4 What wouldst thou have me say ?~\ The interrogative, which 
Lombardi would dismiss from this place, as unmeaning and superfluous, ap- 
pears to me to be the natural result of a deep feeling, and to prepare us for the 
invective that follows. 5 The unblushing dames of Florence.] Landino's 
note exhibits a curious instance of the changeableness of his countrywomen. 
He even goes beyond the acrimony of the original. " In those days," says 
the commentator, " no less than in ours, the Florentine ladies exposed the 
neck and bosom, a dress, no doubt, more suitable to a harlot than a matron. 
But, as they changed soon after, insomuch that they wore collars up to the 
chin, covering the whole of the neck and throat, so have I hopes they will 
change again ; not indeed so much from motives of decency, as through that 
fickleness, which pervades every action of their lives." 6 Saracens.] 

" This word, during the middle ages, was mdiscriminately applied to Pagans 
and Mahometans ; in short, to all nations (except the Jews) who did not 
profess Christianity." Mr. Ellis's Specimens of Early English Metrical 
Romances, vol. i. p. 196 (a note). Lond. 8vo. 1805. 



(300) THE VISION. 98—129, 

Of spiritual or other discipline, 
To force them walk with covering on their limbs ? 
But did they see, the shameless ones, what Heaven 
Wafts on swift wing toward them while I speak, 
Their mouths were oped for howling : they shall taste 
Of sorrow (unless foresight cheat me here) 
Or e'er the cheek of him be clothed with down, 
Who is now rock'd with lullaby 1 asleep. 
Ah ! now, my brother, hide thyself no more : 
Thou seest 2 how not I alone, but all, 
Gaze, where thou veil'st the intercepted sun." 
Whence I replied : " If thou recal to mind 
What we were once together, even yet 
Remembrance of those days may grieve thee sore. 
That I forsook that life, was due to him 
Who there precedes me, some few evenings past, 
When she was round, who shines with sister lamp 
To his that glisters yonder," and I show'd 
The sun. " 'Tis he, who through profoundest night 
Of the true dead has brought me, with this flesh 
As true, that follows. From that gloom the aid 
Of his sure comfort drew me on to climb, 
And, climbing, wind along this mountain-steep, 
Which rectifies in you whate'er the world 
Made crooked and depraved. I have his word, 
That he will bear me company as far 
As till I come where Beatrice dwells : 
But there must leave me. Virgil is that spirit, 
Who thus hath promised," and I pointed to him ; 
" The other is that shade, for whom so late 
Your realm, as he arose, exulting, shook 
Through every pendent cliff and rocky bound." 



1 With lullaby.'] Colui che mo si consola con nanna. 
" Xanna" is said to hare been the sound with, which the Florentine women 
hushed their children to sleep. 2 Thou seest.] Thou seest how we wonder 
that thou art here in a living body. 



]— 20. PURGATORY, Canto XXIV. (301) 

CANTO XXIV. 



ARGUMENT. 

Forese points out several others by name who are here, like himself, purify- 
ing themselves from the vice of gluttony ; and amongst the rest, Buonag- 
giunta of Lucca, with whom our Poet converses. Forese then predicts the 
violent end of Dante's political enemy, Corso Donati ; and, when he has 
quitted them, the Poet, in company with Statius and Virgil, arrives at 
another tree, from whence issue voices that record ancient examples of 
gluttony ; and proceeding forwards, they are directed by an angel which 
way to ascend to the next cornice of the mountain. 

Our journey was not slacken'd by our talk, 

Nor yet our talk by journeying. Still we spake, 

And urged our travel stoutly, like a ship 

When the wind sits astern. The shadowy forms, 

That seem'd things dead and dead again, drew in 

At their deep-delved orbs rare wonder of me, 

Perceiving I had life ; and I my words 

Continued, and thus spake : "He journeys 1 up 

Perhaps more tardily than else he would, 

For others' sake. But tell me, if thou know'st, 

Where is Piccarda 2 ? Tell me, if I see 

Any of mark, among this multitude 

Who eye me thus." — " My sister (she for whom, 

'Twixt beautiful and good 3 , I cannot say 

Which name was fitter) wears e'en now her crown, 

And triumphs in Olympus." Saying this, 

He added : " Since spare diet 4 hath so worn 

Our semblance out, 'tis lawful here to name 

Each one. This," and his finger then he raised, 

"Is Buonaggiunta 5 , — Buonaggiunta, he 

1 He journeys.'] The soul of Statius perhaps proceeds more slowly, in 
order that he may enjoy as long as possible the company of Virgil. 
8 Piccarda.] See Paradise, Canto iii. 
3 ' Twixt beautiful and good.] 

Tra bella e onesta 

Qual fu piu, lascio in dubbio. Petrarca, Son. Ripensando a quel. 
* Diet.] Dieta. 

And dieted with fasting every day. Spenser, F. Q. b. i. c. i. st. 26, 
Spare fast that oft with gods doth diet. Milton, II Penseroso. 
5 Buonaggiunta.] Buonaggiunta Urbiciani, of Lucca. " There is a can- 
zone by this poet, printed in the collection made by the Giunti, (p. 209,) and 
a sonnet to Guido Guinicelli in that made by Corbinelli, (p. 169,) from 
which we collect that he lived not about 1230,* as Quadrio supposes, (t. ii. 



(302) THE VISION. 21—25. 

Of Lucca : and that face beyond him, pierced 
Unto a leaner fineness than the rest, 
Had keeping of the church ; he was of Tours l , 
And purges by wan abstinence away 
Bolsena's eels and cups of muscadel 2 ." 

p. 159,) but towards the end of the thirteenth century. Concerning other 
poems by Buonaggiunta, that are preserved in MS. in some libraries, Cres- 
cimbeni may be consulted." Tiraboschi, Mr. Mathias*s ed. v. i. p. 115. 
Three of these, a canzone, a sonnet, and a ballata, have been published in 
the Anecdota Literaria ex MSS. Codicibus eruta, 8vo. Roma, (no year,) v. 
iii. p. 453. He is thus mentioned by our author in his Treatise de Vulg. 
Eloq. lib. i. cap. xiii. " Next let us come to the Tuscans, who, made sense- 
less by their folly, arrogantly assume to themselves the title of a vernacular 
diction, more excellent than the rest ; nor are the vulgar alone misled by 
this wild opinion, but many famous men have maintained it, as Guittone 
d'Arezzo, who never addicted himself to the polished style of the court, 
Buonaggiunta of Lucca, Gallo of Pisa, Mino Mocato of Sienna, and Brunetto 
of Florence, whose compositions, if there shall be leisure for examining them, 
will be found not to be in the diction of the court, but in that of their respec- 
tive cities." As a specimen of Buonaggiunta' s manner, the reader will take 
the following Sonnet from Corbinelli's Collection added to the Bella Mano : — 
Qual uomo e in su la rota per Ventura, 
Non si rallegri, perche sia innalzato ; 
Che quando piu si mostra chiara, e pura, 
Allor si gira, ed hallo disbassato. 
E nullo prato ha si fresca verdura, 
Che H suoi fiori non cangino stato ; 
E questo saccio, che awien per natura ; 
Piu grave cade, chi piu e montato. 
Non si dee uomo troppo rallegrare 

Di gran grandezza, ne tenere spene ; 
Che egli e gran doglia, allegrezza fallire : 
Anzi si debbe molto umiliare ; 

Non far soperchio, perche aggia gran bene ; 
Che ogni monte a valle dee venire. 

La Bella Mano e Rime Antiche, ediz. Firenze, 1715, p. 170. 
What man is raised on Fortune's wheel aloft, 

Let him not triumph in his bliss elate ; 
For when she smiles with visage fair and soft, 
Then whirls she round, reversing his estate. 
Fresh was the verdure in the sunny croft, 

Yet soon the wither' d flowerets met their fate ; 
And things exalted most, as chanceth oft, 

Fall from on high to earth with ruin great. 
Therefore ought none too greatly to rejoice 
In greatness, nor too fast his hope to hold : 
For one, that triumphs, great pain is to fail. 
But lowly meekness is the wiser choice ; 

And he must down, that is too proud and bold : 
For every mountain stoopeth to the vale. 
1 He was of Tours.] Simon of Tours became Pope with the title of Mar^ 
tin IV. in 1281, and died in 1285. 2 Bolsena's eels and cups of muscadel.] 
The Nidobeatina edition and the Monte Casino MS. agree in reading 



26—45. PURGATORY, Canto XXIV. (303) 

He show'd me many others, one by one : 
And all, as they were named, seem'd well content ; 
For no dark gesture I discern'd in any. 
I saw, through hunger, Ubaldino l grind 
His teeth on emptiness ; and Boniface 2 , 
That waved the crozier 3 o'er a numerous flock : 
I saw the Marquis 4 , who had time erewhile 
To swill at Forli with less drought ; yet so, 
Was one ne'er sated. I howe'er, like him 
That, gazing 'midst a crowd, singles out one, 
So singled him of Lucca ; for methought 
Was none amongst them took such note of me. 
Somewhat I heard him whisper of Gentucca 5 : 
The sound was indistinct, and murmur'd there 6 , 
Where justice, that so strips them, fix'd her sting. 

" Spirit ! " said I, " it seems as thou wouldst fain 
Speak with me. Let me hear thee. Mutual wish 
To converse prompts, which let us both indulge." 

He, answering, straight began : " Woman is born, 
Whose brow no wimple shades yet 7 , that shall make 

L'anguille di Bolsena in la vernaccia ; 
from which it would seem, that Martin the Fourth refined so much on 
epicurism as to have his eels killed by being put into the wine called ver- 
naccia, in order to heighten their flavour. The Latin annotator on the MS. 
relates, that the following epitaph was inscribed on the sepulchre of the pope : 
Gaudent anguilke, quod mortuus hie jacet ille, 
Qui quasi morte reas excoriabat eas. 
1 Ubaldino.] Ubaldino degli TJbaldini, of Pila, in the Florentine terri- 
tory. 2 Boniface.'] Archbishop of Ravenna. By Yenturi he is called 
Bonifazio de' Fieschi, a Genoese ; by Yellutello, the son of the above-men- 
tioned Ubaldini ; and by Landino, Francioso, a Frenchman. 3 Crozier.] 
It is uncertain whether the word " rocco," in the original, means a " crozier 
or a " bishop's rochet," that is, his episcopal gown. In support of the latter 
interpretation Lombardi cites Du Fresne's Glossary, article Roecus. " Ro- 
chettum hodie vocant vestem linteam episcoporum . . . quasi parvum roc- 
cum ; " and explains the verse, 

Che pasturo col rocco molte genti : 
" who, from the revenues of his bishoprick, supported in luxury a large train 
of dependants." If the reader wishes to learn more on the subject, he is 
referred to Monti's Proposta, under the word "Rocco." 4 The Marquis.] 
The Marchese de' Rigogliosi, of Forli. "When his butler told him it was 
commonly reported in the city that he did nothing but drink, he is said to 
have answered: "And do you tell them that I am always thirsty." 
5 Gentucca.] Of this lady it is thought that our Poet became enamoured 
during his exile. See note to Canto xxxi. 56. 6 There.] In the throat, 
the part in which they felt the torment inflicted by the divine justice. 
7 Whose brow no wimpU shades yet.] " Who has not yet assumed the dress 
of a woman." 



(304) THE VISION. 40-56. 

Iffy city please thee, blame it as they may 1 . 

Go then with this forewarning. If aught false 
My whisper too implied, the event shall tell. 
But say, if of a truth I see the man 
Of that new lay the inventor, which begins 
With 'Ladies, ye that con the lore of love-. "' 

To whom I thus : " Count o: mo but as one. 
"Who am the scribe of love ; that, when he breathes. 
Take up my pen. and. as he dictates, write." 

"Brother !" said he. ,; the hindrance, which once held 
The notary 3 , with Guittone 4 and myself, 

1 Blame it as they may? See Hell. Canto and. 39. 

2 Ladies, ye that con the lore of love.] 

Donne ch' avete intelhtto d'amore. 
The first verse of a canzone in onr author's Tita Nuos s The notarj?\ 

Jacopo da Lentino, called the Notary, a poet ::" these times. He was pro- 
bably an Apulian : for Dante, (De Yuig. Eloq. lib. i. cap. 12,) quoting a 
Terse which belongs to a canzone of his. published by the G-iv.nti. hthout 
mentioning the writer's name, terms him one of " the illustrious Apulians," 
praefulgentes Apuli. See Tirabosehi, Mr. Mathioo's eiit. vol. i. p. 1:7, 
Crescinibeni (lib. i. Delia Voir. Poes. p. "2. --.:■ ed. IohS ^ives an extract 
from one of his poems, printed in Allacci's Collection, t: abow that the 
■oo.oon .-.'. : :oo.; : stints- :all: i " Aoi-ttn" ate n:. :: m:dern invention. His 
poems have been collected among the Poeti del primo secolo della Lingua 
Italiana, 2 vol. Svo. Firenze. 1816. They extend trom p. 249 to p. 319 of 
the first volume. 4 GruittofieJ] Fra Guittone, of Arezzo, holds a distin- 
guished place in Italian literature, as, besides his poems printed in the Col- 
lection of the Giunti, he has lert a collection o: letters, forty in number, 
which afford the earliest specimen of that kind o: writing in the language. 
They were published at Rome in 1743, with learned illustrations by Gio- 
vanni Bottari. He was also the first who gave to the sonnet its regular and 
legitimate form, a str.io- of c:nia:oiti:n in vrhich not only his own count :y- 
men, but many of the best poets in all the cultivated languages of modern 
Eu r o pe, have since so much delirht-: 1 Gvittme. a native of Arezzo, was 
the son of Viva di Michele, He was of the .:rd;-r :: the " Frati Geaenti 
of which an account may be seen in the note- t H:-ih Con:: aroha. In the 
year 1293 he founded a nnna.stery <:: the crier ■:: Carnaiijh. in Fi::>n:o. 
and died in the following year. Firaboschi, ibid. p. 119. Dante, in the 
Treatise de Vulg. Eloq. lib. i. cap. 13, (see note to t. 20, above,) and lib. ii. 
cap. 6, blames him for preferring the plebeian to the more courtly style : 
and Petrarch twice places him in the company of our Poet. Triumph of 
Love, cap. iv. and Son. Par. See. Snnuccio mio." The eighth bock in 
the collection of the old poets published by the Giunti in 1527 consist^ :: 
sonnets and canzoni by Guittone. The; are marked by a peculiar solemnity 
of manner, of which the ensuing sonnet wQl afford a proof and an example. 
Go an piacer Signor mio, e gran desire 

Harei d'essere avanti al divin trono, 

Dove si prendera pace e perdono 

Di son ben fatto e d'ogni suo fallire ; 
E gran i :er harei hor di s entire 

Queiia sonante tromba e quel gran suono, 



57—73. PURGATORY, Canto XXIV. (305) 

Short of that new and sweeter style l I hear, 

Is now disclosed : I see how ye your plumes 

Stretch, as the inditer guides them ; which, no question. 

Ours did not. He that seeks a grace beyond, 

Sees not the distance parts one style from other." 

And, as contented, here he held his peace. 

Like as the birds 2 , that winter near the Nile, 
In squared regiment direct their course, 
Then stretch themselves in file for speedier flight ; 
Thus all the tribe of spirits, as they turn'd 
Their visage, faster fled, nimble alike 
Through leanness and desire. And as a man, 
Tired with the motion of a trotting steed 3 , 
Slacks pace, and stays behind his company, 
Till his o'erbreathed lungs keep temperate time ; 
E'en so Forese let that holy crew 
Proceed, behind them lingering at my side, 

E d'udir dire : hora venuti sono, 

A chi dar pace, a chi crudel martire. 
Questo tatto vorrei caro signore ; 

Perche fia scritto a ciaschedun nel volto 

Quel che gia teiine ascoso dentro al core : 
Allho-r yedrete a la mia fronte avvolto 

Un brieve, che dira ; che '1 crudo amore 

Per voi me prese, e mai non m' ha disciolto. 

Great joy it were to me to join the throng, 
That thy celestial throne, O Lord, surround, 
Where perfect peace and pardon shall be found, 
Peace for good doings, pardon for the wrong : 
Great joy to hear the vault of heaven prolong 
That everlasting trumpet's mighty sound, 
That shall to each award their final bound, 
Wailing to these, to those the blissful song. 
All this, dear Lord, were welcome to my soul. 
For on his brow then every one shall bear 
Inscribed, what late was hidden in the heart ; 
And round my forehead wreathed a letter' d scroll 
Shall in this tenor my sad fate declare : 
" Lova's bondman I from him might never part." 
Bottari doubts whether some of the sonnets attributed to Guittone in the 
Rime Antiche are by that writer. See his notes to Lettere di Fra Guittone, 
p. 135. ' That new and siceeter style.] He means the style introduced 
in our Poet's time. 2 The birds.] Hell, Canto v. 46. Euripides, Helena, 
1495, and Statius, Theb. lib. v. 12. 3 Tired xoith the motion of a trotting 
steed.] I have followed Venturi's explanation of this passage. Others un 
derstand 

di trottare e lasso 

of the fatigue produced by running. 






(306) THE VISION. 74—103. 

And saying : " When shall I again behold thee ?" 

" How long my life may last," said I, " I know not : 
This know, how soon soever I return, 
My wishes will before me have arrived : 
Sithence the place l , where I am set to live, 
Is, day by day, more scoop'd of all its good ; 
And dismal ruin seems to threaten it." 

" Go now," he cried : " lo ! he 2 , whose guilt is most, 
Passes before my vision, dragg'd at heels 
Of an infuriate beast. Toward the vale, 
Where guilt hath no redemption, on it speeds, 
Each step increasing swiftness on the last ; 
Until a blow it strikes, that leaveth him 
A corse most vilely shatter'd. No long space 
Those wheels have yet to roll," (therewith his eyes 
Look'd up to heaven,) " ere thou shalt plainly see 
That which my words may not more plainly tell. 
I quit thee : time is precious here : I lose 
Too much, thus measuring my pace with thine." 

As from a troop of well rank'd chivalry, 
One knight, more enterprising than the rest, 
Pricks forth at gallop, eager to display 
His prowess in the first encounter proved ; 
So parted he from us, with lengthen'd strides ; 
And left me on the way with those twain spirits, 
Who were such mighty marshals, of the world. 

When he beyond us had so fled, mine eyes 
No nearer reach'd him, than my thought his words ; 
The branches of another fruit, thick hung, 
And blooming fresh, appear'd. E'en as our steps 

1 The place.] Florence. 2 He.] Corso Donati was suspected of aiming 
at the sovereignty of Florence. To escape the fury of his fellow citizens, he 
fled away on horseback, but falling, was overtaken and slain, A.D. 1308. The 
contemporary annalist, after relating at length the circumstances of his fate, 
adds, "that he was one of the wisest and most valorous knights, the best 
speaker, the most expert statesman, the most renowned and enterprising man 
of his age in Italy, a comely knight and of graceful carriage, but very worldly, 
and in his time had formed many conspiracies in Florence, and entered into 
many scandalous practices for the sake of attaining state and lordship." G. 
Yillani, lib. viii. cap. xcvi. The character of Corso is forcibly drawn by 
another of his contemporaries, Dino Compagni, lib. iii. Muratori, Rer. Ital. 
Script, torn. ix. p. 523. Guittone d'Arezzo's seventh letter is addressed to 
him. It is in verse. 



104—139. PURGATORY, Canto XXIV. (307) 

Turn'd thither ; not far off, it rose to view. 
Beneath it were a multitude, that raised 
Their hands, and shouted forth I know not what 
Unto the boughs ; like greedy and fond brats, 
That beg, and answer none obtain from him, 
Of whom they beg ; but more to draw them on, 
He, at arm's length, the object of their wish 
Above them holds aloft, and hides it not. 

At length, as undeceived, they went their way : 
And we approach the tree, whom vows and tears 
Sue to in vain ; the mighty tree. " Pass on, 
And come not near. Stands higher up the wood, 
Whereof Eve tasted : and from it was ta'en 
This plant." Such sounds from midst the thickets came. 
Whence I, with either bard, close to the side 
That rose, pass'd forth beyond. " Kemernber," next 
We heard, "those unblest creatures of the clouds 1 , 
How they their twyfold bosoms, overgorged, 
Opposed in fight to Theseus : call to mind 
The Hebrews 2 , how, effeminate, they stoop'd 
To ease their thirst ; whence Gideon's ranks were thinn'd, 
As he to Madian 3 march'd adown the hills." 

Thus near one border coasting, still we heard 
The sins of gluttony, with woe erewhile 
Reguerdon'd. Then along the lonely path, 
Once more at large, full thousand paces on 
We travel' d, each contemplative and mute. 

" Why pensive journey so ye three alone ?" 
Thus suddenly a voice exclaim'd : whereat 
I shook, as doth a scared and paltry beast ; 
Then raised my head, to look from whence it came. 

Was ne'er, in furnace, glass, or metal, seen 
So bright and glowing red, as was the shape 
I now beheld. "If ye desire to mount," 
He cried ; " here must ye turn. This way he goes, 
Who goes in quest of peace." His countenance 

1 Creatures of the clouds. ,] The Centaurs. Ovid, Met. lib. xii. fab. 4. 

2 The Hebrews.] Judges, yii. 

3 To Madian. .] The matchless Gideon in pursuit 

Of Madian and her vanquisht kings. 

Milton, Samson Agonistes. 
x 2 






(308) THE VISION. 140—151, 

Had dazzled me ; and to my guides I faced 
Backward, like one who walks as sound directs. 
As when, to harbinger the dawn, springs up 
On freshen'd wing the air of May, and breathes 
Of fragrance, all impregn'd with herb and flowers ; 
E'en such a wind I felt upon my front 
Blow gently, and the moving of a wing 
Perceived, that, moving, shed ambrosial smell ; 
And then a voice : " Blessed are they, whom grace 
Doth so illume, that appetite in them 
Exhaleth no inordinate desire, 
Still hungering as the rule of temperance wills." 



CANTO XXV. 



ARGUMENT. 

Yirgil and Statins resolve some doubts that have arisen in the mind of Dante 
from what he had just seen. They all arrive on the seventh Tmd last cor- 
nice, where the sin of incontinence is purged in fire ; and the spirits of 
those suffering therein are heard to record illustrious instances of chastity. 

It was an hour, when he who climbs, had need 
To walk uncrippled : for the sun l had now 
To Taurus the meridian circle left, 
And to the Scorpion left the night. As one, 
That makes no pause, but presses on his road, 
Whate'er betide him, if some urgent need 
Impel ; so enter' d we 2 upon our way, 
One before other ; for, but singly, none 
That steep and narrow scale admits to climb. 
E'en as the young stork lifteth up his wing 

1 The sun.] The sun had passed the meridian two hours, and that meri- 
dian was now occupied by the constellation of Taurus, to which as the Scor- 
pion is opposite, the latter constellation was consequently at the meridian of 
night. 

2 So enter' d we.] Davanti a me andava la mia guida : 

E poi io dietro per una via stretta 
Seguendo lei come mia scorta fida. 

Frezzi, II Quadrir. lib. ii. cap. 8. 
The good prelate of Foligno has followed our Poet so closely throughout this 
Capitolo, that it would be necessary to transcribe almost the whole of it in 
order to show how much he has copied. These verses of his own may well 
be applied to him on the occasion. 



11—38. PURGATORY, Canto XXV. (309) 

Through wish to fly, yet ventures not to quit 
The nest, and drops it ; so in me desire 
Of questioning my guide arose, and fell, 
Arriving even to the act that marks 
A man prepared for speech. Him all our haste 
Restrain' d not ; but thus spake the sire beloved : 
" Fear not to speed the shaft *, that on thy lip 
Stands trembling for its flight." Encouraged thus, 
I straight began : " How there can leanness come 2 , 
Where is no want of nourishment to feed ? " 

" If thou," he answer'd, " hadst remember'd thee, 
How Meleager 3 with the wasting brand 
Wasted alike, by equal fires consumed ; 
This would not trouble thee : and hadst thou thought, 
How in the mirror 4 your reflected form 
With mimic motion vibrates ; what now seems 
Hard, had appear' d no harder than the pulp 
Of summer-fruit mature. But that thy will 
In certainty may find its full repose, 
Lo Statius here ! on him I call, and pray 
That he would now be healer of thy wound." 

" If, in thy presence, I unfold to him 
The secrets of heaven's vengeance, let me plead 
Thine own injunction to exculpate me." 
So Statius answer'd, and forthwith began : 
" Attend my words, O son, and In thy mind 



1 Fear not to speed the shaft.'] " Fear not to utter the words that are 
already at the tip of thy tongue." 

IIo\A.a fjikv dpxt£7r?js 

YXuivaa fxoi to^ev fxaT «X £t 7r£ »°t kelvwv 

KeXadria-ai. Pindar, Isthm. v. 60. 

Full many a shaft of sounding rhyme 

Stands trembling on my lip 

Their glory to declare. 
9 Hoto there can leanness come.] " How can spirits, that need not cor- 
poreal nourishment, be subject to leanness ? " This question gives rise to 
the following explanation of Statius respecting the formation of the human 
body from the first, its junction with the soul, and the passage of the latter 
to another world. 3 Meleager^] Yirgil reminds Dante that, as Meleager 
was wasted away by the decree of the fates, and not through want of blood ; 
so by the divine appointment, there may be leanness where there is no need 
of nourishment. * In the mirror.'] As the reflexion of a form in a mirror 
is modified in agreement with the modification of the form itself; so the 
soul, separated from the earthly body, impresses the image or ghost of that 
body with its own affections. 












(310) THE VISION. 37—66. 

Eeceive them : so shall they be light to clear 

The doubt thou offer'st. Blood, concocted well. 

Which by the thirsty veins is ne'er imbibed. 

And rests as food superfluous, to be ta'en 

From the replenish' d table, in the heart 

Derives effectual virtue, that informs 

The several human limbs, as being that 

"Which passes through the veins itself to make them. 

Yet more concocted it descends, where shame 

Forbids to mention : and from thence distils 

In natural vessels on another's blood. 

There each unite together ; one disposed 

To endure, to act the other, through that power 

Derived from whence it came x : and being met, 

It 'gins to work, coagulating first ; 

Then vivifies what its own substance made 

Consist. With animation now indued, 

The active virtue (differing from a plant 

No further, than that this is on the way, 

And at its limit that) continues yet 

To operate, that now it moves, and feels, 

As sea-sponge 2 clinging to the rock : and there 

Assumes the organic powers its seed convey 'd. 

This is the moment, son ! at which the virtue, 

That from the generating heart proceeds, 

Is pliant and expansive ; for each limb 

Is in the heart by forgeful nature planned. 

How babe 3 of animal becomes, remains 

For thy considering. At this point, more wise, 

Than thou, has err'd 4 , making the soul disjoin' d 

1 From whence it came.'] " From the heart," as Lombardi rightly inter- 
prets it. 2 As sea-sponge.] The foetus is in this stage a zoophyte. 

3 Babe.] By u fante,"" which is here rendered ''babe," is meant '-'the 
human creature." " The creature that is distinguished from others by its 
faculty of speech," just as Homer calls men, 

yEvsai /uLEaoirwv avftpunruiv. 

4 More icise, 

Than thou, has err'd.] Averroes is said to be here meant. Tenturi 
refers to his commentary on Aristotle, De Anini. lib. iii. cap. o, for the 
opinion that there is only one universal intellect or mind pervading every in- 
dividual of the human race. Much of the knowledge displayed by our Poet 
in the present Canto, appears to have been derived from the medical work 
of Averroes called the Colliget, lib. ii. f. 10. Yen. 1490. fol. 



67—101. PURGATORY, Canto XXV. (311) 

From passive intellect, because he saw 
No organ for the latter's use assign'd. 

" Open thy bosom to the truth that comes. 
Know, soon as in the embryo, to the brain 
Articulation is complete, then turns 
The primal Mover with a smile of joy 
On such great work of nature ; and imbreathes 
New spirit replete with virtue, that what here 
Active it finds, to its own substance draws ; 
And forms an individual soul, that lives, 
And feels, and bends reflective on itself. 
And that thou less mayst marvel at the word, 
Mark the sun's heat ! ; how that to wine doth change, 
Mix'd with the moisture filter'd through the vine. 

"When Lachesis hath spun the thread 2 , the soul 
Takes with her both the human and divine, 
Memory, intelligence, and will, in act 
Far keener than before ; the other powers 
Inactive all and mute. No pause allow' d, 
In wondrous sort self-moving, to one strand 
Of those, where the departed roam, she falls : 
Here learns her destined path. Soon as the place 
Receives her, round the plastic virtue beams, 
Distinct as in the living limbs before : 
And as the air, when saturate with showers, 
The casual beam refracting, decks itself 
With many a hue ; so here the ambient air 
Weareth that form, which influence of the soul 
Imprints on it : and like the flame, that where 
The fire moves, thither follows ; so, henceforth, 
The new form on the spirit follows still : 
Hence hath it semblance, and is shadow call'd, 
With each sense, even to the sight, endued : 
Hence speech is ours, hence laughter, tears, and sighs, 
Which thou mayst oft have witness' d on the mount. 

1 Mark the sun's heat.~\ Redi and Tiraboschi (Mr. Mathias's ed. v. ii. p. 
36) have considered this as an anticipation of a profound discovery of Galileo's 
in natural philosophy ; but it is in reality taken from a passage in Cicero " de 
Senectute," where, speaking of the grape, he says, " quae, et succo terrae et ca- 
lore solis augescens, primo est peracerba gustatu, deinde maturata dulcescit." 

8 When Lachesis hath spun the thread.'] When a man's life on earth is at 
an end. 



(312) THE VISION. 102—133. 

The obedient shadow fails not to present 
Whatever varying passion moves within us. 
And this the cause of what thou marvel'st at." 

Now the last flexure of our way we reach 'd ; 
And to the right hand turning other care 
Awaits us. Here the rocky precipice 
Hurls forth redundant flames ; and from the rim 
A blast up -blown, with forcible rebuff 
Driveth them back, sequester'd from its bound. 

Behoved us, one by one, along the side, 
That border'd on the void, to pass ; and I 
Fear'd on one hand the fire, on the other fear'd 
Headlong to fall : when thus the instructor warn'd ; 
" Strict rein must in this place direct the eyes. 
A little swerving and the way is lost." 

Then from the bosom of the burning mass, 
" O God of mercy 1 ! " heard I sung, and felt 
No less desire to turn. And when I saw 
Spirits along the flame proceeding, I 
Between their footsteps and mine own was fain 
To share by turns my view. At the hymn's close 
They shouted loud, "I do not know a man 2 ;" 
Then in low voice again took up the strain ; 
Which once more ended, " To the wood," they cried, 
"Ran Dian, and drave forth Callisto 3 stung 
With Cytherea's poison :" then return'd 
Unto their song ; then many a pair extolTd, 
Who lived in virtue chastely and the bands 
Of wedded love. Nor from that task, I ween, 
Surcease they ; whilesoe'er the scorching fire 
Enclasps them. Of such skill appliance needs, 
To medicine the wound that healeth last 4 . 



1 " O God of mercy "] " Summae Deus clementiae." The beginning of the 
hymn sung on the Sabbath at matins, as it stands in the ancient breviaries ; 
for in the modern it is " summae parens clementiae." Lombardi. 

2 I do not knoiv a man.] Luke, i. 34. 3 Callisto.'] See Ovid, Met. lib. 
ii. fab. 5. 4 The wound that healeth last.] The marginal note in the 
Monte Casino MS. on this passage is : "id est ultima litera quae denotat ulti- 
mum peccatum mortale ;" and the editor remarks, that Dante in these last 
two verses admonishes himself, and in himself all those guilty of carnal sin, 
in what manner the wound, inflicted by it, and expressed by the last P. on 
his forehead, may be healed. 



1—33. PURGATORY, Canto XXVI. (313) 

CANTO XXYI. 



ARGUMENT. 

The spirits wonder at seeing the shadow cast by the body of Dante on the 
flame as he passes it. This moves one of them to address him. It proves 
to be Guido Guinicelli, the Italian poet, who points ont to him the spirit 
of Arnault Daniel, the Provencal, with whom he also speaks. 

While singly thus along the rim we walk'd, 
Oft the good master warn'd me : " Look thou well. 
Avail it that I caution thee." The sun 
Now all the western clime irradiate changed 
From azure tinct to white ; and, as I pass'd, 
My passing shadow made the umber'd flame 
Burn ruddier. At so strange a sight I mark'd 
That many a spirit marvel'd on his way. 

This bred occasion first to speak of me. 
" He seems," said they, "no insubstantial frame :" 
Then, to obtain what certainty they might, 
Stretch'd towards me, careful not to overpass 
The burning pale. " O thou ! who followest 
The others, haply not more slow than they, 
But moved by reverence ; answer me, who burn 
In thirst and fire : nor I alone, but these 
All for thine answer do more thirst, than doth 
Indian or ^Ethiop for the cooling stream. 
Tell us, how is it that thou makest thyself 
A wall against the sun, as thou not yet 
Into the inextricable toils of death 
Hadst enter'd ? " Thus spake one : and I had straight 
Declared me, if attention had not turn'd 
To new appearance. Meeting these, there came, 
Midway the burning path, a crowd, on whom 
Earnestly gazing, from each part I view 
The shadows all press forward, severally 
Each snatch a hasty kiss, and then away. 
E'en so the emmets, 'mid their dusky troops, 
Peer closely one at other, to spy out 
Their mutual road perchance, and how they thrive. 

That friendly greeting parted, ere dispatch 
Of the first onward step, from either tribe 



(314) THE VISION. 34-65. 

Loud clamour rises : those, who newly come, 
Shout " Sodom and Gomorrah ! " these, " The cow 
Pasiphae enter'd, that the beast she woo'd 
Might rush unto her luxury." Then as cranes, 
That part towards the Riphasan mountains fly, 
Part towards the Lybic sands, these to avoid 
The ice, and those the sun ; so hasteth off 
One crowd, advances the other ; and resume 
Their first song, weeping, and their several shout 1 . 

Again drew near my side the very same, 
Who had erewhile besought me ; and their looks 
Mark'd eagerness to listen. I, who twice 
Their will had noted, spake : " O spirits ! secure, 
Whene'er the time may be, of peaceful end ; 
My limbs, nor crude, nor in mature old age, 
Have I left yonder : here they bear me, fed 
With blood, and sinew-strung. That I no more 
May live in blindness, hence I tend aloft. 
There is a dame on high, who wins for us 
This grace, by which my mortal through your realm 
I bear. But may your utmost wish soon meet 
Such full fruition, that the orb of heaven, 
Fullest of love, and of most ample space, 
Receive you ; as ye tell (upon my page 
Henceforth to stand recorded) who ye are ; 
And what this multitude, that at your backs 
Have past behind us." As one, mountain-bred, 
Rugged and clownish, if some city's walls 
He chance to enter, round him stares agape, 
Confounded and struck dumb ; e'en such appear'd 
Each spirit. But when rid of that amaze, 
(Not long the inmate of a noble heart 2 ,) 

1 Their first song, weeping, and their several shout. ,1 See the last Canto, 
v. 118, and y. 123. 

2 Amaze, 

{Not long the inmate of a noble heart.)} 

stupore 

Lo qual negli alti cor tosto s'attuta. 

Thus Speroni : lo stupore 

Lo qual dagli alti cor tosto si parte. Canaee. 
He does not say that wonder is not natural to a lofty mind, for it is the very 
principle of knowledge. fiaKa yap <f>i\oar6(pov nrovnro to 7ra0os, to Sravjxa- 
$£ii>, oh yap a\\n dpxh <t>ikoaro$ias v avrri. Plato, Thecet. Edit. Bipont 



66—92. PURGATORY, Canto XXVI. (315) 

He, who before had question'd, thus resumed : 

" O blessed ! who, for death preparing, takest 

Experience of our limits, in thy bark ; 

Their crime, who not with us proceed, was that 

For which, as he did triumph, Cassar 1 heard 

The shout of ' queen,' to taunt him. Hence their cry 

Of ' Sodom,' as they parted ; to rebuke 

Themselves, and aid the burning by their shame. 

Our sinning was Hermaphrodite : but we, 

Because the law of human kind we broke, 

Following like beasts our vile concupiscence, 

Hence parting from them, to our own disgrace 

Record the name of her, by whom the beast 

In bestial tire was acted. Now our deeds 

Thou know'st, and how we sinn'd. If thou by name 

Wouldst haply know us, time permits not now 

To tell so much, nor can I. Of myself 

Learn what thou wishest. Guinicelli 2 I ; 

Who having truly sorrow'd ere my last, 

Already cleanse me." With such pious joy, 

As the two sons upon their mother gazed 

From sad Lycurgus 3 rescued ; such my joy 

(Save that I more repress'd it) when I heard 

From his own lips the name of him pronounced, 

Who was a father to me, and to those 

My betters, who have ever used the sweet 

And pleasant rhymes of love. So nought I heard, 

torn. ii. p. 76, but that it is not of long continuance in such a mind. On 
this subject it is well said by Doctor Horsley : " Wonder, connected with a 
principle of rational curiosity, is the source of all knowledge and discovery, 
and it is a principle even of piety : but wonder, which ends in wonder, and 
is satisfied with wonder, is the quality of an idiot." Sermons, vol. i. p. 227. 
Compare Aristotle, Metaph. lib. i. p. 335. Edit. Sylb. The above passage 
from Plato is adduced by Clemens Alexand. Strom* lib. ii. sect. 9. 

1 Ccesar.] For the opprobrium cast on Caesar's effeminacy, see Suetonius, 
Julius Caesar, c. 49. 2 Guinicelli.] See note to Canto xi. 96. 

3 Lycurgus.] Statius, Theb. lib. iv. and v. Hypsipile had left her infant 
charge, the son of Lycurgus, on a bank, where it was destroyed by a serpent, 
when she went to show the Argive army the river of Langia : and, on her 
escaping the effects of Lycurgus's resentment, the joy her own children felt 
at the sight of her was such, as our Poet felt on beholding his predecessor 
Guinicelli. The incidents are beautifully described in Statius, and seem to 
have made an impression on Dante, for he before (Canto xxii. 110) charac- 
terizes Hypsipile as her — 

Who show'd Langia's wave. 



(316) THE VISION. 93—111, 

Nor spake ; but long time thoughtfully I went 

Gazing on him ; and, only for the fire, 

Approach'd not nearer. When my eyes were fed 

By looking on him ; with such solemn pledge, 

As forces credence, I devoted me 

Unto his service wholly. In reply 

He thus bespake me : " What from thee I hear 

Is graved so deeply on my mind, the waves 

Of Lethe shall not wash it off, nor make 

A whit less lively. But as now thy oath 

Has seal'd the truth, declare what cause impels 

That love, which both thy looks and speech bewray." 

" Those dulcet lays," I answer'd ; " which, as long 
As of our tongue the beauty does not fade, 
Shall make us love the very ink that traced them." 

" Brother ! " he cried, and pointed at the shade 
Before him, "there is one, whose mother speech 
Doth owe to him a fairer ornament. 
He ! in love ditties, and the tales of prose, 



1 He.'] The united testimony of Dante, and of Petrarch, places Arnault 
Daniel at the head of the Provencal poets. 

poi v'era un drappello 

Di portamenti e di volgari strani : 
Fra tutti il prhno Arnaldo Daniello 
Gran maestro d'amor ch' a la sua terra 
Ancor fa onor col suo dir nuovo e hello. 

Petrarca, Trionfo d'Amore, c. iv. 
That he was horn of poor hut nohle parents, at the castle of Eibeyrac in 
Perigord, and that he was at the English court, is the amount of Millot's 
information concerning him (torn. ii. p. 479). The account there given of 
his writings is not much more satisfactory, and the criticism on them must 
go for little hetter than nothing. It is to be regretted that we have not an op- 
portunity of judging for ourselves of his " love ditties and his tales of prose." 
Versi d'amore e prose di romanzi. 
Our Poet frequently cites him in the work De Vulgari Eloquio. In the 
second chapter of the second hook, he is instanced as one " who had treated 
of love ; " and in the tenth chapter, he is said to have used in almost all his 
canzoni a particular kind of stanza, the sestine, which Dante had followed 
in one of his own canzoni, beginning, 

Al poco giorno ed al gran cerchio d'ombra. 
This stanza is termed by Gray, " both in sense and sound, a very mean com- 
position.' * Gray's Works, 4to. Lond. 1814. vol. ii. p. 23. According to 
Crescimbeni, (Delia Yolg. Poes. lib. i. p. 7, ed. 1698,) he died in 1189. 
Arnault Daniel was not soon forgotten; for Ausias March, a Catalonian, 
who was himself distinguished as a Provencal poet in the middle of the fif- 
teenth century, makes honourable mention of him in some verses, which are 
quoted by Bastero in his Crusea Provenzale, Ediz. Roma, 1724, p. 75. 



112, 113. PURGATORY, Canto XXVI. (317) 

Without a rival stands ; and lets the fools 
Talk on, who think the songster of Limoges l 

Envers alguns aco miracle par ; 
Mas siii's membram d'en Arnau Daniel 
E de aquels que la terra los es vel, 
Sabrem Amor vers nos que pot donar. 
To some this seems a miracle to be ; 
But if we Arnault Daniel call to mind, 
And those beside, whom earthly veil doth bind, 
"We then the mighty power of love shall see. 
Since this note was written, M. Raynouard has made us better acquainted 
with the writings and history of the Provencal poets. I have much plea- 
sure in citing the following particulars respecting Arnault Daniel from his 
Choix des Poesies des Troubadours, torn. ii. pp. 318, 319. " L'autorite de 
Dante suffirait pour nous convaincre qu' Amaud Daniel avait compose plu- 
sieurs romans. Mais il reste une preuve positive de 1' existence d'un roman 
d' Arnaud Daniel ; c'est celui de Lancelot du Lac, dont la traduction fut 
faite, vers la fin du treizieme siecle, en allemand, par Ulrich de Zatchit- 
schoven, qui nomme Arnaud Daniel comme l'auteur original ." " Le Tasse, 
dans Tun de ses ouvrages 6 , s'exprime en ces termes, au sujet des romans 
composes par les troubadours : E romanzi furono detti quei poemi, o pin 
tosto quelle istorie favolose, che furono scritte nella lingua de' Provenzali o de' 
Castigliani ; le quaU non si scrivevano in versi, ma in prosa, come alcuni hanno 
osservato prima da me, perche Dante, parlando d'Arnaldo Daniello, disse : 
Versi d'amore e prose di romanzi, etc. 
Enfin Pulci, dans son Morgante Maggiore, nomme Arnaud Daniel comme 
auteur d'un roman de Renaud : 

Dopo costui venne il famoso Arnaldo 
Che molto diligentemente ha scritto, 
E investigo le opre di Rinaldo, 
De le gran cose che fece in Egitto, etc." 

Morgante Maggiore, Canto xxvii. ott. 80. 
See also Raynouard, torn. v. 30. 

1 The songster of Limoges.~\ Giraud de Borneil, of Sideuil, a castle in 
Limoges. He was a Troubadour, much admired and caressed in his day, 
and appears to have been in favour with the monarchs of Castile, Leon, 
Navarre, and Arragon. Giraud is mentioned by Dante in a remarkable pas- 
sage of the De Vulg. Eloq. lib. ii. cap. 2. "As man is endowed with a 
triple soul, vegetable, animal, and rational, so he walks in a triple path. 
Inasmuch as he is vegetable, he seeks utility, in which he has a common na- 
ture with plants ; inasmuch as he is animal, he seeks for pleasure, in which 
he participates with brutes ; inasmuch as he is rational, he seeks for honour, 
in which he is either alone, or is associated with the angels. Whatever we 
do, appears to be done through these three principles, &c." — " With respect 
to utility, we shall find on a minute inquiry that the primary object with all 
who seek it, is safety ; with regard to pleasure, love is entitled to the first 
place ; and as to honour, no one will hesitate in assigning the same pre- 
eminence to virtue. These three then, safety, love, virtue, appear to be 
three great subjects, which ought to be treated with most grandeur ; that is, 
those things which chiefly pertain to these, as courage in arms, ardency of 

Des extraits de cette traduction allemande ont ete publies. 
Discorso sopra il parere fatto del Signor Fr. Patricio, etc. edit. fol. 
torn. iv. p. 210. 



THE VISION. 1—132. 

O'ertops Lira. Rumour and the popular v ; 

They look to. more than truth : and so confirm , 

Opinion, ere by art or reason taught. 

Thus many of the elder time cried up 

Guittone l , giving him the prize, till truth 

By strength of numbers vanquish' d. If thou own 

So ample privilege, as to have gam'd 

Free entrance to the cloister, whereof Christ 

Is Abbot of the college ; say to him 

One paternoster for me. far as needs 2 

For dwellers in this world, where power to sin 

No longer tempts us." Haply to make way 

For one that follow'd next when that was said, 

He vanish'd through the fire, as through the wave 

A fish, that glances diving to the deep. 

I, to the spirit he had shown me, drew 
A little onward, and besought his name, 
For which my heart, I said, kept gracious room. 
He frankly thus began : u Thy courtesy 

and the direction of the will : concerning which alone we shall find on 
inquiry that illustrious men hare composed their poems in the vernacular 
tongues ; Bertrand de Born, of arms ; Arnault Daniel, of lore; Girand de 
Borneil, of rectitude ; Cm: la PSstnia, of love ; his friend," (by whom he 
means himself,) " of rectitude ; but I find no Italian as yet who has treated 
of arms." Giraud is again quoted in the sixth chapter of this book. The 
following notice respecting him is found in Gray's posthumous Works, 4to. 
Lond. 1814, vol. ii. p. 23." " The canzone is of very ancient date, the inven- 
tion of it being ascribed to Girard de Borneil of the school of Provence, who 
in 1178. "He was of Limoges, and was called U Maestro de* Trocatori.' 9 
Fhai he was distinguished by this title (a circumstance that, perhaps, in- 
duced Dante to vindicate the superior claims of Arnault Daniel) is men- 
tioned by Bastero in his Crusca ProTenzale, Ediz. Roma, p. 84, where we 
find the following list of his MS S. poems preserved in the Vatican, and in 
the library of S." Lorenzo at Florence. " Una tenzone col Re d'Aragona; 
e un Serrentese contra Cardaillac, e diverse Canzoni massimamente tre pel 
rlcuperamento del S. Sepolcro, o di Terra Santa, ed alcune col titolo di 

..Terete, cioe picciole cantari, owero canzonette." The light which these 
and similar writings might cast, not only on the events, but still more on 
the manners of a most interesting period of history, would surely, without 
: iking into the account any merit they may possess as poetical compositions, 
render them obj ects well deserving of more curiosity than they appear to have 
hitherto excited in the public mind. Many of his poems are stfll r emaining 
in 1 1 S . According to Nostradamus he died in 1278. Mfllot, Hist. Iitt des 
Troub. torn. ii. p. 1 and 23. But I suspect that there is some error in this 
1 that he did not live to so late a period. Some of his poems have since 
Lis he i bv Ravnouard, Poesies des Troubadours, torn. iiL p. 30f, &c 

1 Guittotie.] See Canto xxrr. 56. Ear as needs.] See Canto xL 23. 

T : -■ courtesy.] Arnault is here made to speak in his own tongue, the 



133. 134. PURGATORY, Canto XXVI. (319) 

So wins on me, I have nor power nor will 
To hide ine. I am Arnault ; and with songs, 

Provencal. According to Dante, (De Vulg. Eloq. lib. i. c. 8,) the Provencal 
was one language with, the Spanish. What he says on this subject is so 
curious, that the reader will perhaps not be displeased if I give an abstract 
of it. He first makes three great divisions of the European languages. 
" One of these extends from the mouths of the Danube, or the lake of Maeotis, 
to the western limits of England, and is bounded by the limits of the French 
and Italians, and by the ocean. One idiom obtained oyer the whole of this 
space : but was afterwards subdivided into the Sclavonian, Hungarian, 
Teutonic, Saxon, English, and the vernacular tongues of several other 
people, one sign remaining to all, that they use the affirmative io (our 
English ay). The whole of Europe, beginning from the Hungarian limits 
and stretching towards the east, has a second idiom, which reaches still fur- 
ther than the end of Europe, into Asia. This is the Greek. In all that re- 
mains of Europe, there is a third idiom, subdivided into three dialects, which 
may be severally distinguished by the use of the affirmatives, oc, oil, and si ; 
the first spoken* by the "Spaniards, the next by the French, the third by the 
Latins (or Italians). The first occupy the western part of southern Europe, 
beginning from the limits of the Genoese. The third occupy the eastern part 
from the said limits, as far, that is, as to the promontory of Italy, where the 
Adriatic sea begins, and to Sicily. The second are in a manner northern, 
with respect to these, for they have the Germans to the east and north, on 
the west they are bounded by the English sea and the mountains of Arragon, 
and on the south by the people of Provence and the declivity of the Apen- 
nine." Ibid. ex. " Each of these three," he observes, " has its own claims 
to distinction. The excellency of the French language consists in its being 
best adapted, on account of its facility and agreeableness, to prose narration, 
(quicquid redactum, sive inventum est ad vulgare prosaicum, suum est ;) and 
he instances the books compiled on the gests of the Trojans and Romans, 
and the delightful Adventures of King Arthur, with many other histories 
and works of instruction. The Spanish (or Provencal) may boast of its 
having produced such as first cultivated in this, as in a more perfect and 
sweet language, the vernacular poetry : among whom are Pierre d'Auvergne, 
and others more ancient. The privileges of the Latin, or Italian, are two; 
first, that it may reckon for its own those writers who have adopted a more 
sweet and subtile style of poetry, in the number of whom are Cino da Pistoia 
and his friend; and the next, that its writers seem to adhere to certain 
general rules of grammar, and in so doing give it, in the opinion of the intel- 
ligent, a very weighty pretension to preference." Since the last edition of 
this book, it has appeared that Mr. Gray understood by the words " Gram- 
matics, quae communis est;" " the Latin or mother-tongue," and not, as I 
have rendered them, "general rules of grammar." In this latter sense, 
however, the word " Gram marie a " has" been used twice before in the 
Treatise de Vulg. Eloq., though it is certainly afterwards applied in the sense 
in which Gray took it. See the edition of Gray's "Works, for which we are 
so much indebted to Mr. Mathias, 4to. London, 1814, vol. ii. p. 35. We 
learn from our author's Vita Xuova, p. 258, that there were no poetic com- 
positions in the Provencal or Italian, more than one hundred and fifty years 
before the Vita Xuova was written; and that the first who wrote "in the 
vernacular languages, wrote to make himself understood by a lady. M . 
Raynouard supposed the text of all the editions to be miserably corrupted in 
this place, and took much pains to restore it. I will add the passage as that 
learned writer concluded it to have come from the hand of Dante :— 



(320) THE VISION. 135—141. 

Sorely waymenting for my folly past, 
Thorough this ford of fire I wade, and see 
The day, I hope for, smiling in my view. 
I pray ye by the worth that guides ye up 
Unto the summit of the scale, in time 
Remember ye my sufferings." With such words 
He disappear' d in the refining flame. 



CANTO XXVII. 



ARGUMENT. 

An angel sends them forward through, the fire to the last ascent, which leads 
to the terrestrial Paradise, situated on the summit of the mountain. They 
have not proceeded many steps on their way upward, when the fall of night 
hinders them from going further ; and our Poet, who has lain down with 
Virgil and Statius to rest, beholds in a dream two females, figuring the 
active and contemplative life. With the return of morning, they reach 
the height ; and here Virgil gives Dante full liberty to use his own pleasure 
and judgment in the choice of his way, till he shall meet with Beatrice. 

Now was the sun l so station'd, as when first 
His early radiance quivers on the heights, 

" Tan m'abeliis vostre cortes deman, 

Ch' ieu non me puese ni m voil a vos cobrire ; 

Jeu sui Arnautz, che plor e vai cantan ; 

Consiros, vei la passada follor, 

E vei jauzen lo joi qu'esper denan ; 

Aras vos prec, per aquella valor 

Que us guida al som sens freich e sens calina, 

Sovegna vos atenprar ma dolor. 
"Tant me plait votre courtoise demande, — que je ne puis ni ne me veux 
a yous cacher ; — je suis Arnaud, qui pleure et va chantant; — soucieux, je 
vois la passee folie, — et vois joyeux le bonheur, que j'espere a Tavenir ; — 
maintenant je vous prie, par cette vertu — qui vous guide an sommet, sans 
froid et sans chaud ; qu'il souvienne a vous de souiager ma douleur. II 
n'est pas un des nombreux manuscrits de la Divina Commedia, pas une des 
editions multipliees qui en ont ete donnees, qui ne presente dans les vers que 
Dante prete au troubadour Arnaud Daniel, un texte defigure et devenu, de 
copie en copie, presque inintelligible. Cependant j'ai pense qu'il n'etait pas 
impossible de retabhr le texte de ces vers, en comparant avec soin, dans les 
manuscrits de Dante que possedent les depots publics de Paris, toutes les 
variantes qu'ils pouvaient fournir, et en les choisissant d'apres les regies 
grammaticales et les notions lexicographiques de la langue des troubadours. 
Mon espoir n'a point ete trompe, et sans aucun secours conjectural, sans 
aucun emplacement ni changement de mots, je suis parvenu, par le simple 
choix des variantes, a retrouver le texte primitif, tel qu'il a du etre produit 
par Dante." Raynouard, Lexique Roman, Tom. i. p. xlii. 8°. Par. 1830. 
1 The sun.] At Jerusalem it was dawn, in Spain midnight, and in India 
noonday, while it was sunset in Purgatory. 



3—33. PURGATORY, Canto XXVII. (321) 

Where stream'd his Maker's blood ; while Libra hangs 
Above Hesperian Ebro ; and new fires, 
Meridian, flash on Ganges' yellow tide. 

So day was sinking, when the angel of God 
Appear'd before us. Joy was in his mien. 
Forth of the flame he stood upon the brink ; 
And with a voice, whose lively clearness far 
Surpass'd our human, "Blessed 1 are the pure 
In heart," he sang : then near him as we came, 
" Go ye not further, holy spirits !" he cried, 
" Ere the fire pierce you : enter in ; and list 
Attentive to the song ye hear from thence." 

I, when I heard his saying, was as one 
Laid in the grave 2 . My hands together clasp'd, 
And upward stretching, on the fire I look'd ; 
And busy fancy conjured up the forms 
Erewhile beheld alive consumed in flames. 

The escorting spirits turn'd with gentle looks 
Toward me ; and the Mantuan spake : " My son, 
Here torment thou mayst feel, but canst not death. 
Remember thee, remember thee, if I 
Safe e'en on Geryon brought thee ; now I come 
More near to God, wilt thou not trust me now ? 
Of this be sure ; though in its womb that flame 
A thousand years contain'd thee, from thy head 
No hair should perish. If thou doubt my truth, 
Approach ; and with thy hands thy vesture's hem 
Stretch forth, and for thyself confirm belief. 
Lay now all fear, oh ! lay all fear aside. 
Turn hither, and come onward undismay'd." 

I still, though conscience urged, no step advanced. 

1 Blessed.] Matt. y. 8. 

2 As one 

Laid in the grave.] Quale e colui che nella fossa e messo. 
Lombardi understands this of a man who is taken to execution in the man- 
ner described in Hell, c. xix. 52. " Colui," he thinks, cannot be properly 
applied to a corse. Yet Boccaccio's imitation confirms the opinion of the 
other commentators : — 

Essa era tale, a guardarla nel viso, 

Qual donna morta alia fossa portata. II Filostrato, p. v. st. 83. 
which Chaucer has thus translated : — 

She was right soche to sene in her visage, 

As is that wight that men on here ybinde. Troilus and Creseide, b. iv. 

Y 



(322) THE VISION. 34—71. 

When still lie saw me fix'd and obstinate, 
Somewhat disturb'd he cried : " Mark now, my son, 
From Beatrice thou art by tins wall 
Divided." As at Thisbe's name the eye 
Of Pyramus was open'd, (when life ebb'd 
Fast from his veins,) and took one parting glance, 
While vermeil dyed the mulberry 1 ; thus I turn'd 
To my sage guide, relenting, when I heard 
The name that springs for ever in my breast. 

He shook his forehead ; and, " How long," he said, 
"Linger we now?" then smiled, as one would smile 
Upon a child that eyes the fruit and yields. 
Into the fire before me then he walk'd ; 
And Statius, who erewhile no little space 
Had parted us, he pray'd to come behind. 

I would have cast me into molten glass 
To cool me, when I enter'd ; so intense 
Eaged the conflagrant mass. The sire beloved, 
To comfort me, as he proceeded, still 
Of Beatrice talk'd. " Her eyes," saith he, 
" E'en now I seem to view." From the other side 
A voice, that sang, did guide us ; and the voice 
Following, with heedful ear, we issued forth, 
There where the path led upward. " Come 2 ," we heard, 
" Come, blessed of my Father." Such the sounds, 
That hail'd us from within a light, which shone 
So radiant, I could not endure the view. 
" The sun," it added, " hastes : and evening comes. 
Delay not : ere the western sky is hung 
With blackness, strive ye for the pass." Our way 
Upright within the rock arose, and faced 
Such part of heaven, that from before my steps 
The beams were shrouded of the sinking sun. 

Nor many stairs were overpast, when now 
By fading of the shadow we perceived 
The sun behind us couch' d ; and ere one face 
Of darkness o'er its measureless expanse 
Involved the horizon, and the night her lot 



1 While vermeil dyed the mulberry A Ovid, Metam. lib. ix. 125. 
* Come.] Matt, xxy. 34. 



72—105. PURGATORY, Canto XXVII. (323) 

Held individual, each of us had made 
A stair his pallet ; not that will, but power, 
Had fail'd us, by the nature of that mount 
Forbidden further travel. As the goats, 
That late have skipt and wanton' d rapidly 
Upon the craggy cliffs, ere they had ta'en 
Their supper on the herb, now silent lie 
And ruminate beneath the umbrage brown, 
While noon-day rages ; and the goatherd leans 
Upon his staff, and leaning watches them : 
And as the swain, that lodges out all night 
In quiet by his flock, lest beast of prey 
Disperse them : even so all three abode, 
I as a goat, and as the shepherds they, 
Close pent on either side by shelving rock. 
A little glimpse of sky was seen above ; 
Yet by that little I beheld the stars, 
In magnitude and lustre shining forth 
With more than wonted glory. As I lay, 
Gazing on them, and in that fit of musing, 
Sleep overcame me, sleep, that bringeth oft 
Tidings of future hap. About the hour, 
As I believe, when Venus from the east 
First lighten'd on the mountain, she whose orb 
Seems alway glowing with the fire of love, 
A lady young and beautiful, I dream'd, 
Was passing o'er a lea ; and, as she came, 
Methought I saw her ever and anon 
Bending to cull the flowers ; and thus she sang : 
" Know ye, whoever of my name would ask, 
That I am Leah l : for my brow to weave 
A garland, these fair hands unwearied ply. 
To please me 2 at the crystal mirror, here 
I deck me. But my sister Rachel, she 3 

1 / am Leah.] By Leah is understood the active life, as Rachel figures 
the contemplative. Michel Angelo has made these allegorical personages 
the subject of two statues on the monument of Julius II. in the church of 
S. Pietro in Vincolo. See Mr. Duppa's Life of Michel Angelo, Sculpture 
yiii. and x. and p. 247. 2 To please me.~] " For the sake of that enjoy- 
ment which I shall have in beholding my God face to face, I thus exercise 
myself in good works." 3 She.] " Her delight is in admiring in her 
mirror, that is, in the Supreme Being, the light, or knowledge, that He 
vouchsafes her." 

T 2 



(324) THE VISION. 106—139. 

Before her glass abides the livelong day, 
Her radiant eyes beholding, charm'd no less, 
Than I with this delightful task. Her joy 
In contemplation, as in labour mine." 

And now as glimmering dawn appear'd, that breaks 
More welcome to the pilgrim still, as he 
Sojourns less distant on his homeward way, 
Darkness from ail sides fled, and with it fled 
My slumber ; whence I rose, and saw my guide 
Already risen. " That delicious fruit, 
Which through so many a branch the zealous care 
Of mortals roams in quest of, shall this day 
Appease thy hunger." Such the words I heard 
From Virgil's lip ; and never greeting heard, 
So pleasant as the sounds. Within me straight 
Desire so grew upon desire to mount, 
Thenceforward at each step I felt the wings 
Increasing for my flight. When we had run 
O'er all the ladder to its topmost round, 
As there we stood, on me the Mantuan fix'd 
His eyes, and thus he spake : " Both fires, my son, 
The temporal and eternal, thou hast seen ; 
And art arrived, where of itself my ken 
No further reaches. I, with skill and art, 
Thus far have drawn thee. Now thy pleasure take 
For guide. Thou hast o'ercome the steeper way, 
O'ercome the straiter. Lo ! the sun, that darts 
His beam upon thy forehead : lo ! the herb f , 
The arborets and flowers, which of itself 
This land pours forth profuse. Till those bright eyes 2 
With gladness come, which, weeping, made me haste 
To succour thee, thou mayst or seat thee down, 
Or wander where thou wilt. Expect no more 
Sanction of warning voice or sign from me, 

1 Lo! the herb.] " In alium canipum transit amoenissimum. — Ipse vero 
campus splendidus, suayis ac decorus quantse magnitudinis, quantse gloriae, 
quanteeque sit pulchritxidinis, nulla lingua, nullusque sermo, potest enarrare : 
plenus est enim omni jucunditate, et gaudio, et laetitia. Ibi liliorum, et ro- 
sarum odor, ibi odoramentorum omnium redolet fragrantia, ibi mannae, om- 
niumque eternarum deliciarum redundat abundantia. In hujus campi medio 
paradisus est." Alberici Visio, § 20. 

2 Those bright eyes.] The eyes of Beatrice. 



140—143. PURGATORY, Canto XXVII. (325) 

Free of thy own arbitrement to chuse, 
Discreet, judicious. To distrust thy sense 
Were henceforth error. I invest thee then 
With crown and mitre, sovereign o'er thyself." 



CANTO XXVIII. 



ARGUMENT. 

Dante wanders through the forest of the terrestrial Paradise, till he is stopped 
by a stream, on the other side of which he beholds a fair lady, culling 
flowers. He speaks to her; and she, in reply, explains to hini certain 
things touching the nature of that place, and tells that the water, which 
flows between them, is here called Lethe, and in another place has the 
name of Eunoe. 

Through that celestial forest, whose thick shade 
With lively greenness the new-springing day 
Atternper'd, eager now to roam, and search 
Its limits round, forthwith I left the bank ; 
Along the champain leisurely my way 
Pursuing, o'er the ground, that on all sides 
Delicious odour breathed. A pleasant air 1 , 
That intermitted never, never veer'd, 
Smote on my temples, gently, as a wind 
Of softest influence : at which the sprays, 
Obedient all, lean'd trembling to that part 2 
Where first the holy mountain casts his shade ; 
Yet were not so disorder'd, but that still 
Upon their top the feather'd quiristers 3 

1 A pleasant air.] 

Cantan fra i rami gli augelletti Taghi, 

Azzurri, e bianchi, e verdi, e rossi, e giaili ; 

Mormoranti rusceHi, e cheti laghi 

Di limpidezza Tincono i cristalli. 

Una dole' aura, che ti par che yaghi 

A un modo sempre, e dal suo stil non falli, 

Facea si l'aria tremolar d'intorno, 

Che non potea nojar calor del giorno. 

Ariosto, Orl. Fur. c. xxxiv. st. 50. 
Therewith a winde, unnethe it might be less, 
Made in the leyis grene a noise soft, 
Accordant to the foulis song on loft. 

Chaucer, The Assemble of Foules . 

2 To that part.] The west. 3 The feather'd quiristers.] Imitated 
by Boccaccio, Fiammetta, lib. iv. " Odi i queruli uccelli," &c. — " Hear 
the querulous birds plaining with sweet songs, and the boughs trembling, 



(326) THE VISION. 15—43. 

Applied their wonted art, and with full joy 
"Welcomed those hours of prime, and warbled shrill 
Amid the leaves, that to their jocund lays 
Kept tenour ; even as from branch to branch, 
Along the piny forests on the shore 
Of Chiassi l , rolls the gathering melody, 
When Eolus hath from his cavern loosed 
The dripping south. Already had my steps, 
Though slow, so far into that ancient wood 
Transported me, I could not ken the place 
Where I had enter'd ; when, behold ! my path 
Was bounded by a rill, which, to the left, 
With little rippling waters bent the grass 
That issued from its brink. On earth no wave, 
How clean soe'er, that would not seem to have 
Some mixture in itself, compared with this, 
Transpicuous clear ; yet darkly on it rolFd, 
Darkly beneath perpetual gloom, winch ne'er 
Admits or sun or moon-light there to shine. 

My feet advanced not ; but my wondering eyes 
Pass'd onward, o'er the streamlet, to survey 
The tender may-bloom, flush' d through many a hue, 
In prodigal variety : and there, 
As object, rising suddenly to view, 
That from our bosom every thought beside 
With the rare marvel chases, I beheld 
A lady 2 all alone, who, singing, went, 
And culling flower from flower, wherewith her way 
Was all o'er painted. " Lady beautiful ! 

and moved by a gentle wind, as it were keeping tenour to their notes. 
1 Chiassi.'] This is the wood, where the scene of Boccaccio's sublimest 
story (taken entirely from Elinaud. as I learn in the notes to the Decameron, 
Ediz. Giunti. 1573', p. 62) is laid. See Dec. G. 5, X. 8, and Dryden's 
Theodore and Honoria. Our Poet perhaps wandered in it dining his abode 
with Guido Novello da Polenta. 2 A lady.'] Most of the commentators 
suppose, that by this lady, who in the last Canto is called Matilda, is to be 
understood the Countess 'Matilda, who endowed the holy see with the estates 
called the Patrimony of St. Peter, and died in 111-5. See G. Tillani, lib. iv. 
cap. xx. But it seems more probable that she should be intended for an 
allegorical personage. Venturi accordingly supposes that she represents 
the active life. But, as Lombard! justly observes, we have had that already 
shadowed forth in the character of Leah ; and he therefore suggests, that by 
Matilda may be understood that affection which we ought to bear towards the 
holy church, and for which the lady above mentioned was so remarkable. 



44-SO. PURGATORY, Canto XXVIII. (327) 

Thou, who (if looks, that use to speak the heart, 
Are worthy of our trust) with love's own beam 
Dost warm thee," thus to her my speech I framed ; 
" Ah ! please thee hither towards the streamlet bend 
Thy steps so near, that I may list thy song. 
Beholding thee and this fair place, methinks, 
I call to mind where wander'd and how look'd 
Proserpine, in that season, when her child 
The mother lost, and she the bloomy spring." 

As when a lady, turning in the dance, 
Doth foot it featly, and advances scarce 
One step before the other to the ground ; 
Over the yellow and vermilion flowers 
Thus turn'd she at my suit, most maiden-like, 
Valing her sober eyes ; and came so near, 
That I distinctly caught the dulcet sound. 
Arriving where the limpid waters now 
Laved the green swerd, her eyes she deign'd to raise, 
That shot such splendour on me, as I ween 
Ne'er glanced from Cytherea's, when her son 
Had sped his keenest weapon to her heart. 
Upon the opposite bank she stood and smiled ; 
As through her graceful fingers shifted still 
The intermingling dyes, which without seed 
That lofty land unbosoms. By the stream 
Three paces only were we sunder'd : yet, 
The Hellespont, where Xerxes pass'd it o'er, 
(A curb for ever to the pride of man 1 ,) 
Was by Leander not more hateful held 
For floating, with inhospitable wave, 
'Twixt Sestus and Abydos, than by me 
That flood, because it gave no passage thence. 

" Strangers ye come ; and haply in this place, 
That cradled human nature in her birth, 
Wondering, ye not without suspicion view 
My smiles : but that sweet strain of psalmody, 
1 Thou, Lord ! hast made me glad 2 ,' will give ye light, 

1 A curb for ever to the pride of man.] Because Xerxes had been so 
humbled, when he was compelled to repass the Hellespont in one small bark, 
after having a little before crossed with a prodigious army, in the hopes of 
subduing Greece. 2 Thou, Lard ! hast made me glad.] Psalm xcii. 4. 



(328) THE VISION. 81—116. 

Which may uncloud your minds. And thou, who stand'st 
The foremost, and didst make thy suit to me, 
Say if aught else thou wish to hear : for I 
Came prompt to answer every doubt of thine." 

She spake ; and I replied : " I know not how l 
To reconcile this wave, and rustling sound 
Of forest leaves, with what I late have heard 
Of opposite report." She answering thus : 
" I will unfold the cause, whence that proceeds, 
Which makes thee wonder ; and so purge the cloud 
That hath en wrapt thee. The First Good, whose joy 
Is only in himself, created man, 
For happiness ; and gave this goodly place, 
His pledge and earnest of eternal peace. 
Favour'd thus highly, through his own defect 
He fell ; and here made short sojourn ; he fell, 
And, for the bitterness of sorrow, changed 
Laughter unblamed and ever-new delight. 
That vapours none, exhaled from earth beneath, 
Or from the waters, (which, wherever heat 
Attracts them, follow,) might ascend thus far 
To vex man's peaceful state, this mountain rose 
So high toward the heaven, nor fears the rage 
Of elements contending 2 ; from that part 
Exempted, where the gate his limit bars. 
Because the circumambient air, throughout, 
With its first impulse circles still, unless 
Aught interpose to check or thwart its course ; 
Upon the summit, which on every side 
To visitation of the impassive air 
Is open, doth that motion strike, and makes 
Beneath its sway the umbrageous wood resound : 
And in the shaken plant such power resides, 
That it impregnates with its efficacy 
The voyaging breeze, upon whose subtle plume 
That, wafted, flies abroad ; and the other land 3 , 

1 J know not how.] See Canto xxi. 45. 2 Of elements contending^ 
In the Dittamondo of Fazio degli Uberti, 1. i. cap. xi., there is a description 
of the terrestrial Paradise, in which the poet has had Dante before him. 

3 The other land.] The continent, inhabited by the living, and separated 
from Pnrgatory by the ocean, is affected (and that diversely, according to the 
nature of the soil, or the climate) by a virtue, or efficacy, conveyed to it by 



117—149. PURGATORY, Canto XXVIII. (329) 

Receiving, (as 'tis worthy in itself, 

Or in the clime, that warms it,) doth conceive ; 

And from its womb produces many a tree 

Of various virtue. This when thou hast heard, 

The marvel ceases, if in yonder earth 

Some plant, without apparent seed, be found 

To fix its fibrous stem. And further learn, 

That with prolific foison of all seeds 

This holy plain is fill' d, and in itself 

Bears fruit that ne'er was pluck'd on other soil. 

" The water, thou behold'st, springs not from vein, 
Restored by vapour, that the cold converts ; 
As stream that intermittently repairs 
And spends his pulse of life ; but issues forth 
From fountain, solid, undecaying, sure: 
And, by the will omnific, full supply 
Feeds whatsoe'er on either side it pours ; 
On this, devolved with power to take away 
Remembrance of offence ; on that, to bring 
Remembrance back of every good deed done. 
From whence its name of Lethe on this part ; 
On the other, Eunoe : both of which must first 
Be tasted, ere it work ; the last exceeding 
All flavours else. Albeit thy thirst may now 
Be well contented, if I here break orF, 
No more revealing ; yet a corollary 
I freely give beside : nor deem my words 
Less grateful to thee, if they somewhat pass 
The stretch of promise. They, whose verse of yore 
The golden age recorded and its bliss, 
On the Parnassian mountain l , of this place 
Perhaps had dream'd. Here was man guiltless ; here 
Perpetual spring 2 , and every fruit ; and this 

the winds from plants growing in the terrestrial Paradise, which is situated 
on the summit of Purgatory ; and this is the cause why some plants are 
found on earth without any apparent seed to produce them. 
1 On the Parnassian mountain.] 

In bicipiti somniasse Parnasso. Persius, Prol. 
8 Perpetual spring.'] 

Ver erat aeternum, placidique tepentibus auris 
Mulcebant zephyri natos sine semine flores. 

Flumina jam lactis, jam flumina nectaris ibant. 

Ovid, Metam. lib. i. t. 111. 



(330) THE VISION. 150-153. 

The far-famed nectar." Turning to the bards, 
When she had ceased, I noted in their looks 
A smile at her conclusion ; then my face 
Again directed to the lovely dame. 



CANTO XXIX. 



ARGUMENT. 

The lady, who in a following Canto is called Matilda, moves along the side 
of the stream in a contrary direction to the current, and Dante keeps 
equal pace with her on the opposite bank. A marvellous sight, preceded 
by music, appears in view. 

Singing 1 , as if enamour' d, she resumed 

And closed the song, with "Blessed they 2 whose sins 

Are cover'd." Like the wood-nymphs then, that tripp'cl 

Singly across the sylvan shadows ; one 

Eager to view, and one to escape the sun ; 

So moved she on, against the current, up 

The verdant rivage. I, her mincing step 

Observing, with as tardy step pursued. 

Between us not an hundred paces trod, 
The bank, on each side bending equally, 
Gave me to face the orient. Nor our way 
Far onward brought us, when to me at once 
She turn'd, and cried : " My brother ! look, and hearken." 
And lo ! a sudden lustre ran across 
Through the great forest on all parts, so bright, 
I doubted whether lightning were abroad ; 
But that, expiring ever in the spleen 
That doth unfold it, and this during still, 
And waxing still in splendour, made me question 
What it might be : and a sweet melody 
Ran through the luminous air. Then did I chide, 
"With warrantable zeal, the hardihood 
Of our first parent ; for that there, where earth 
Stood in obedience to the heavens, she only, 
Woman, the creature of an hour, endured not 



1 Singing.] Cantara come fosse innamorata. 

Guido Cavalcanti, Poeti del prima secolo, v. 2, p. 2S3. 

2 Blessed tJiey.] Psalm xxxii. 1. 



26—57. PURGATORY, Canto XXIX. (331) 

Restraint of any veil, which had she borne 

Devoutly, joys, ineffable as these, 

Had from the first, and long time since, been mine. 

While, through that wilderness of primy sweets 
That never fade, suspense I walk'd, and yet 
Expectant of beatitude more high ; 
Before us, like a blazing fire, the air 
Under the green boughs glow'd ; and, for a song, 
Distinct the sound of melody was heard. 

ye thrice holy virgins ! for your sakes 
If e'er I suffer'd hunger, cold, and watching, 
Occasion calls on me to crave your bounty. 
Now through my breast let Helicon his stream 
Pour copious, and Urania 1 with her choir 
Arise to aid me ; while the verse unfolds 
Things, that do almost mock the grasp of thought. 

Onward a space, what seem'd seven trees of gold 
The intervening distance to mine eye 
Falsely presented ; but, when I was come 
So near them, that no lineament was lost 
Of those, with which a doubtful object, seen 
Remotely, plays on the misdeeming sense ; 
Then did the faculty, that ministers 
Discourse to reason, these for tapers of gold 2 
Distinguish ; and i' the singing trace the sound 
" Hosanna." Above, their beauteous garniture 
Flamed with more ample lustre, than the moon 
Through cloudless sky at midnight, in her noon. 

1 turn'd me, full of wonder, to my guide ; 
And he did answer with a countenance 

Charged with no less amazement : whence my view 
Reverted to those lofty things, which came 



1 Urania.] Landino observes, that intending to sing of heavenly things, 
he rightly invokes Urania. Thus Milton : 

Descend from Heaven, Urania, by that name 

If rightly thou art call'd. P. L. b. vii. 1. 

2 Tapers of gold.] See Rev. i. 12. The commentators are not agreed 
whether the seven sacraments of the Church, or the seven gifts of the Spirit 
are intended. In his Convito, our author says : " Because these gifts pro- 
ceed from ineffable charity, and divine charity is appropriated to the Holy 
Spirit, hence, also, it is that they are called gifts of the Holy Spirit, the 
which, as Isaiah distinguishes them, are seven." P. 189. 



(332) THE VISION. 58—79. 

So slowly moving towards us, that the bride 1 
Would have outstript them on her bridal day. 

The lady call'd aloud : " Why thus yet burns 
Affection in thee for these living lights, 
And dost not look on that which follows them ? " 

I straightway mark'd a tribe behind them walk, 
As if attendant on their leaders, clothed 
With raiment of such whiteness, as on earth 
Was never. On my left, the watery gleam 
Borrow'd, and gave me back, when there I look'd, 
As in a mirror, my left side portray'd. 

When I had chosen on the river's edge 
Such station, that the distance of the stream 
Alone did separate me ; there I stay'd 
My steps for clearer prospect, and beheld 
The flames go onward, leaving 2 , as they went, 
The air behind them painted as with trail 
Of liveliest pencils 3 ; so distinct were mark'd 
All those seven listed colours 4 , whence the sun 
Maketh his bow, and Cynthia her zone. 
These streaming gonfalons did flow beyond 
My vision ; and ten paces 5 , as I guess, 

1 The bride.] E come va per via sposa novella 

A passi rari, e porta gli ocelli bassi 
Con faccia vergognosa, e non favella. 

Frezzi, II Quadrir. lib. i. cap. 16. 

2 Leaving, .] Lasciando dietro a se l'aer dipinto. 

Che lascia dietro a se l'aria dipinta. 
Mr. Mathias's Ode to Mr. Nichols, Gray's Works, vol. i. p. 532. 

3 Pencils.'] Since this translation was made, Perticari has affixed another 
sense to the word " pennelli," which he interprets " pennons" or " stream- 
ers." Monti, in his Proposta, highly applauds the discovery. The conjecture 
loses something of its probability, if we read the whole passage, not as Monti 
gives it, but as it stands in Landino's edition of 1484. 

Et vidi le fiamelle andar davante 

lasciando drieto a se laire dipinto 

che di tratti pennegli havea sembiante 
Siche li sopra rimanea distinto 

di sette liste tutte in que colori 

onde fa larcho el sole & delia elcinto 

4 Listed colours.] Di sette liste tutte in quei colori, &c. 

a bow 

Conspicuous with three listed colours gay. Milton, P. L. b. xi. 865. 

5 Ten paces.] For an explanation of the allegorical meaning of this mys- 
terious procession, Venturi refers those, " who would see in the dark," to 
the commentaries of Landino, Vellutello, and others : and adds, that it is 
evident the Poet has accommodated to his own fancy many sacred images in 



80 — 103. PURGATORY, Canto XXIX. (333) 

Parted the outermost. Beneath a sky 
So beautiful, came four and twenty elders \ 
By two and two, with flower-de-luces crown'd. 
All sang one song : " Blessed be thou 2 among 
The daughters of Adam ! and thy loveliness 
Blessed for ever ! " After that the flowers, 
And the fresh herblets, on the opposite brink, 
Were free from that elected race ; as light 
In heaven doth second light, came after them 
Four 3 animals, each crown'd with verdurous leaf. 
With six wings each was plumed ; the plumage full 
Of eyes ; and the eyes of Argus would be such, 
Were they endued with life. Eeader ! more rhymes 
I will not waste in shadowing forth their form : 
For other need so straitens, that in this 
I may not give my bounty room. But read 
Ezekiel 4 ; for he paints them, from the north 
How he beheld them come by Chebar's flood, 
In whirlwind, cloud, and fire ; and even such 
As thou shalt find them charactered by him, 
Here were they ; save as to the pennons : there, 
From him departing, John 5 accords with me. 

The space, surrounded by the four, enclosed 
A car triumphal 6 : on two wheels it came, 

the Apocalypse. In Vassari's Life of Giotto, we learn that Dante recom- 
mended that book to his friend, as affording fit subjects for his pencil. 

1 Four and twenty elders.'] " Upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders 
sitting." Rev. iv. 4. 2 Blessed be thou.] " Blessed art thou among wo- 

men, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. Luke, i. 42. 3 Four.] The 

four evangelists. 4 Ezekiel.] "And I looked, and behold, a whirlwind 
came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a bright- 
ness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out 
of the midst of the fire. Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of 
four living creatures. And this was their appearance ; they had the likeness 
of a man. And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings." 
Ezekiel, i. 4, 5, 6. b John.] " And the four beasts had each of them six 
wings about him." Rev. iv. 8. " Aliter senas alas propter senarii numeri 
perfectionem positum arbitror ; quia in sexta setate, id est adveniente pleni- 
tudine teniporum, ha?c Apostolus peracta commemorat ; in novissimo enim 
animah' conclusit omnia." Primasii, August ini discipuli, Episcqpi Com- 
ment, lib. quinque in Apocal. Ed. Basil, 1544. " With this interpretation it 
it is very consonant that Ezekiel discovered in these animals only four wings, 
because his prophecy does not extend beyond the fourth age ; beyond that is 
the end of the synagogue and the calling of the Gentiles : whereas Dante 
beholding them in the sixth age, saw them with six wings, as did Saint 
John." Lombardi. 6 A car tHumphal.] Either the Christian church, or 
perhaps the Papal chair. 



(334) THE VISION. 104— 125. 

Drawn at a Gryphon's l neck ; and he above 
Stretch' d either wing uplifted, 'tween the midst 
And the three listed hues, on each side, three : 
So that the wings did cleave or injure none ; 
And out of sight they rose. The members, far 
As he was bird, were golden ; white the rest, 
With vermeil intervened. So beautiful 2 
A car, in Rome, ne'er graced Augustus' pomp, 
Or Africanus' : e'en the sun's itself 
Were poor to this ; that chariot of the sun, 
Erroneous, which in blazing ruin fell 
At Tellus' prayer 3 devout, by the just doom 
Mysterious of all-seeing Jove. Three nymphs 4 , 
At the right wheel, came circling in smooth dance : 
The one so ruddy, that her form had scarce 
Been known within a furnace of clear flame ; 
The next did look, as if the flesh and bones 
"Were emerald ; snow new-fallen seem'd the third. 
Now seem'd the white to lead, the ruddy now ; 
And from her song who led, the others took 
Their measure, swift or slow. At the other wheel. 
A band quaternion 5 , each in purple clad, 
Advanced with festal step, as, of them, one 
The rest conducted 6 ; one, upon whose front 
Three eyes were seen. In rear of all this group, 

1 Gryphon.] "Under the gryphon, an imaginary creature, the fore-part of 
which is an eagle, and the hinder a lion, is shadowed forth the union of the 
divine and the human nature in Jesus Christ. 
8 So beautiful.] E certo quando Roma piii onore 
Di carro trionfale a Scipione 
Fece, non fu cotal, ne di splendore 
Passato fu da quello, il qual Fetone 
Abbandono per soverchio tremore. 

Boccaccio, Teseide. lib. ix. st. 31. 
Thus in the Quadriregio, lib. i. cap. 5. 

Mai vide Roma carro trionfante 
Quanto era questo bel, ne vedra unquanco. 
3 Tellus' prayer.] Ovid, Met. lib. ii. t. 279. 4 Three nymphs.'] The 
three evangelical vn-tues : the first Charity, the next Hope, and the third 
Faith. Faith may be produced by charity, or charity by faith, but the in- 
ducements to hope must arise either from one or other of these. 5 A hand 
quaternion.] The four moral or cardinal virtues, of whom Prudence di: 
the others. 

6 One 

The rest conducted.] Prudence, described with three eyes, because she 
regards the pastj the present, and the future. 



129—150. PURGATORY, Canto XXIX. (335) 

Two old men l I beheld, dissimilar 

In raiment, but in port and gesture like, 

Solid and mainly grave ; of whom, the one 

Did show himself some favour'd counsellor 

Of the great Coan 2 , him, whom nature made 

To serve the costliest creature of her tribe : 

His fellow mark'd an opposite intent ; 

Bearing a sword, whose glitterance and keen edge, 

E'en as I viewed it with the flood between, 

Appall'd me. Next, four others 3 I beheld 

Of humble seeming : and, behind them all, 

One single old man 4 , sleeping as he came, 

With a shrewd visage. And these seven, each 

Like the first troop were habited ; but wore 

No braid of lilies on their temples wreathed. 

Rather, with roses and each vermeil flower, 

A sight, but little distant, might have sworn, 

That they were all on fire 5 above their brow. 

Whenas the car was o'er against me, straight 
Was heard a thundering, at whose voice it seem'd 
The chosen multitude were stay'd ; for there, 
With the first ensigns, made they solemn halt. 

1 Tico old men.] Saint Luke, the physician, characterized as the writer 
of the Acts of the Apostles, and Saint Paul, represented with a sword, on 
account, as it should seem, of the power of his style. 2 Of the great 

Coan.] Hippocrates, " whom nature made for the benefit of her favourite 
creature, man." 3 Four others.] " The commentators," says Yenturi, 
" suppose these four to be the four evangelists ; but I should rather take them 
to be four principal doctors of the church." Yet both Landino and Yellu- 
tello expressly call them the authors of the epistles, James, Peter, John, and 
Jude. 4 One single old man.] As some say, Saint John, under the cha- 
racter of the author of the Apocalypse. But, in the poem attributed to 
Giacopo, the son of our Poet, which in some MSS. and in one of the earliest 
editions, accompanies the original of this work, and is descriptive of its plan, 
this old man is said to be Moses. 

E'l vecchio, ch' era dietro a tutti loro, 
Fu Moyse. 

And the old man, who was behind them all, 
"Was Moses. 
See No. 3459 of the Harl. MSS. in the British Museum. 
5 All on fire.] So Giles Fletcher, 

The wood's late wintry head 
With flaming primroses set all on fire. 

Christ's Triumph after Death. 



(336) THE VISION. 1—28. 

CANTO XXX. 



ARGUMENT. 
Beatrice descends from heaven, and rebukes the poet. 

Soon as that polar light 1 , fair ornament 

Of the first heaven, which hath never known 

Setting nor rising, nor the shadowy veil 

Of other cloud than sin, to duty there 

Each one convoying, as that lower doth 

The steersman to his port, stood firmly fix'd ; 

Forthwith the saintly tribe, who in the van 

Between the Gryphon and its radiance came, 

Did turn them to the car, as to their rest : 

And one, as if commission'd from above, 

In holy chant thrice shouted forth aloud ; 

" Come 2 , spouse ! from Libanus :" and all the rest 

Took up the song. — At the last audit, so 

The blest shall rise, from forth his cavern each 

Uplifting lightly his new- vested flesh ; 

As, on the sacred litter, at the voice 

Authoritative of that elder, sprang 

A hundred ministers and messengers 

Of life eternal. "Blessed 3 thou, who comes t !" 

And, " Oh !" they cried, "from full hands 4 scatter ye 

Unwithering lilies :" and, so saying, cast 

Flowers over head and round them on all sides. 

I have beheld, ere now, at break of day, 
The eastern clime all roseate ; and the sky 
Opposed, one deep and beautiful serene ; 
And the sun's face so shaded, and with mists 
Attemper'd, at his rising, that the eye 
Long while endured the sight : thus, in a cloud 

1 That polar light.'] The seven candlesticks of gold, which he calls the 
polar light of heaven itself, because they perform the same office for Chris- 
tians that the polar star does for mariners, in guiding them to their port. 
2 Come A " Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me, from 
Lebanon." Song of Solomon, iv. 8. 3 Blessed.] "Blessed is he that 

cometh in the name of the Lord." Matt. xxi. 9. 

4 From full hands.] Manibus date lilia plenis. 

Virg. Mn. lib. vi. 884. 



29-45. PURGATORY, Canto XXX. (33,7) 

Of flowers l , that from those hands angelic rose, 

And down within and outside of the car 

Fell showering, in white veil with olive wreathed, 

A virgin in my view appear' d, beneath 

Green mantle, robed in hue of living flame : 

And 2 o'er my spirit, that so long a time 

Had from her presence felt no shuddering dread, 

Albeit mine eyes discern'd her not, there moved 

A hidden virtue from her, at whose touch 

The power of ancient love 3 was strong within me. 

No sooner on my vision streaming, smote 
The heavenly influence, which, years past, and e'en 
In childhood, thrill' d me, than towards Virgil I 
Turn'd me to leftward ; panting, like a babe, 
That flees for refuge to his mother's breast, 
If aught have terrified or work'd him woe : 
And would have cried, " There is no dram of blood, 

1 In a cloud 



Of flowers.'] Dentro una mivola di nori. 
ninguntque rosarum. 



Floribus, umbrantes matrem, &c. Lucretius, lib. ii. 
Thus Milton : 

Eve separate he spies, 

Veil'd in a cloud of fragrance, where she stood. P. L. b. ix. v. 425. 
And Thomson, in his Invocation to Spring : 

veil'd in a shower 

Of shadowing roses, on our plains descend. 

2 And.] In the first edition it stood thus : 

And o'er my spirit, that in former days 
Within her presence had abode so long, 
No shuddering terror crept. Mine eyes no more 
Had knowledge of her ; yet there moved from her 
A hidden virtue, at whose touch awaked, &c. 
and this was a translation of the common reading, which has " con la sua 
presenza," instead of " che alia sua presenza," and a full stop instead of a 
comma after " infranto." As I have little doubt but that the reading of the 
Nidobeatina edition and that of many MSS. is right in this instance, I have 
altered the version as it now stands in the text, which still perhaps needs 
some explanation. His spirit, which had been so long unawed by the pre- 
sence of Beatrice (for she had been ten years dead) now felt, through a 
secret influence proceeding from her, its ancient love revived, though his 
sight had not yet distinguished her. 

3 The power of ancient love.] 

D'antico amor sent! la gran potenza. 

Io sento si d'amor la gran possanza. Dante, Canzone vi. 

Sveglia d'antico amor la gran possanza. 

Mr. Mathias's Ode to Mr. Nichols, Gray's Works, 
4to. 1814, vol. i. p. 532. 
Z 



,38) THE VISION. 46—82. 

That doth not quiver in me. The old name ' 
Throws out clear tokens of reviving: fire." 
But Virgil had bereaved us of himself : 
Virgil, my best-loved father ; Virgil, he 
To whom I gave me up for safety : nor - 
All, our prime mother lost, avail' d to save 
My undew'd cheeks from blur of soiling tears. 

" Dante ! weep not that Virgil leaves thee ; nay, 
Weep thou not yet : behoves thee feel the edge 
Of other sword ; and thou shalt weep for that/' 

As to the prow or stern, some admiral 
Paces the deck, inspiriting his crew, 
When 'mid the sail-yards all hands ply aloof; 
Thus, on the left side of the car, I saw 
(Turning me at the sound of mine own name. 
Which here I am compell'd to register) 
The virgin station'd, who before appeared 
Veil'd in that festive shower angelical. 

Towards me, across the stream, she bent her eyes ; 
Though from her brow the veil descending, bound 
With foliage of Minerva, suffer'd not 
That I beheld her clearly : then with act 
Full royal, still insulting o'er her thrall, 
Added, as one who, speaking, keepeth back 
The bitterest saying, to conclude the speech : 
u Observe me well. I am, in sooth, I am 
Beatrice. What ! and hast thou deign'd at last 
Approach the mountain ? Knewest not, man ! 
Thy happiness is here ? " Down fell mine eyes 
On the clear fount ; but there, myself espying, 
Recoil' d, and sought the greenswerd ; such a weight 
Of shame was on my forehead. With a mien 
Of that stern majesty, which doth surround 
A mother's presence to her awe-struck child, 
She look'd ; a flavour of such bitterness 
Was mingled in her pity. There her words 
Brake off ; and suddenly the angels sang, 

1 The old flamed Agnosco yeteris vestigia flammae. Yirg. ^En. lib. iv. 23. 
Conosco i segni dell' antico fiioco. Giusto de* Cor>~i, Lc. Bella Mano. 
8 iVorJ " Not all the beauties of the terrestrial Paradise, in which I was. 
were sufficient to allay my grief." 



83—112. PURGATORY, Canto XXX. (i 

" In thee, O gracious Lord ! my hope hath been :" 

But 1 went no further than, " Thou, Lord ! hast set 

My feet in ample room." As snow, that lies, 

Amidst the living rafters 2 on the back 

Of Italy, congeal* d, when drifted high 

And closely piled by rough Sclavonian blasts ; 

Breathe but the land whereon no shadow falls 3 , 

And straightway melting it distils away, 

Like a fire-wasted taper : thus was I, 

Without a sigh or tear, or ever these 

Did sing, that, with the chiming of heaven's sphere, 

Still in their warbling chime : but when the strain 

Of dulcet symphony express' d for me 

Their soft compassion, more than could the words, 

"Virgin ! why so consumest him?" then, the ice 4 , 

Congeal'd about my bosom, turn'd itself 

To spirit and water ; and with anguish forth 

Gush'd, through the lips and eyelids, from the heart. 

Upon the chariot's same edge 5 still she stood, 
Immoveable ; and thus address'cl her words 
To those bright semblances "with pity touch'd : 
" Ye in the eternal day your vigils keep ; 
So that nor night nor slumber, with close stealth, 
Conveys from you a single step, in all 
The goings on of time : thence, with more heed 
I shape mine answer, for his ear intended, 
Who there stands weeping ; that the sorrow now 
May equal the transgression. Not alone 
Through operation of the mighty orbs, 
That mark each seed to some predestined aim, 



1 But.] They sang the thirty-first Psalm, to the end of the eighth verse 
What follows in that Psalm would not have suited the place or the occasion. 

2 The living rafters.] " Vive travi." The leafless woods on the Apennine. 

Fraxineaeque trabes. Virg. JEn. lib. vi. 181. 

and Trabibusque obscurus acernis. Ibid. lib. ix. 87. 

3 The land whereon no shadow falls.] " When the wind blows from off 
Africa, where, at the time of the equinox, bodies, being under the equator, 
cast little or no shadow ; or, in other words, when the wind is south." 

4 The ice.] Milton has transferred this conceit, though scarcely worth the 
pains of removing, into one of his Italian poems, Son. v. 5 Same edge.] 
The Nidobeatina edition, and many MSS. here read " detta coscia," instead 
of " destra," or " dritta coscia ;" and it is probable from what has gone be- 
fore, that the former is the right reading. See v. 60. 

z 2 



(-340) THE VISION. 113—146. 

As with aspect or fortunate or ill 

The constellations meet ; but through benign 

Largess of heavenly graces, which rain down 

From such a height as mocks our vision, this man 

Was, in the freshness of his being \ such. 

So gifted virtually, that in him 

All better habits wonderously had thrived. 

The more of kindly strength is in the soil, 

So much doth evil seed and lack of culture 

Mar it the more, and make it run to wildness. 

T::e-e looks sometime upheld him ; for I show'd 

Mv youthful eves, and led him bv their li^ht 

In upright walking.. Soon as I had reach'd 

The threshold of my second age 2 , and changed 

My mortal for immortal ; then he left me, 

And gave himself to others. When from rlesh 

To spirit I bad risen, and increase 

Of beauty and of virtue circled me, 

I was less dear to him, and valued less. 

His steps were turn'd into deceitful ways. 

Following false images of °;ood. that make 

Xo promise perfect. Xor avaiFd me aught 

To sue for inspirations, with the which, 

L both in dreams of night, and otherwise. 

Did call Lin; been ; of :brm. so little reck'd him. 

Such depth he fell, that all device was short 

Of his preserving, save that he should view 

The children of perdition. To this end 

I visit-:! the purlieus of the dead: 

And one. who bath conducted him thus high, 

Received my supplications urged with weeping. 

It were a breaking of God's high decree, 

If Lethe should be past, and such food 3 tasted, 

Without the cost of some repentant tear." 

1 In the freshness of his being.] Nella sua vita nuoYa. 
Some suppose our Poet alludes to the work so called, written in his youth. 

: The threshold of my second age.] In the Convito, our Poet makes a 
division of human life into four ages, the first of which lasts till the twenty- 
fifth, year. Beatrice, therefore, passed from this life to a better, about that 
period. See the Life of Dante prefixed. 

3 Such food.] The oblivion of sins. 






1—28. PURGATORY, Canto XXXI. (341) 

CANTO XXXI. 



ARGUMENT. 

Beatrice continues her reprehension of Dante, who confesses his error, and 
falls to the ground : coming to himself again, he is by Matilda drawn 
through the waters of Lethe, and presented first to the four virgins who 
figure the cardinal virtues ; these in their turn lead him to the Gryphon, 
a symbol of our Saviour ; and the three virgins, representing the evan- 
gelical virtues, intercede for him with Beatrice, that she would display to 
him her second beauty. 

" thou ! " her words she thus without delay 
Resuming, turn'd their point on me, to whom 
They, with but lateral edge \ seem'd harsh before : 
" Say thou, who stand'st beyond the holy stream, 
If this be true. A charge, so grievous, needs 
Thine own avowal." On my faculty 
Such strange amazement hung, the voice expired 
Imperfect, ere its organs gave it birth. 

A little space refraining, then she spake : 
" What dost thou muse on ? Answer me. The wave 
On thy remembrances of evil yet 
Hath done no injury." A mingled sense 
Of fear and of confusion, from my lips 
Did such a " Yea " produce, as needed help 
Of vision to interpret. As when breaks, 
In act to be discharged, a cross-bow bent 
Beyond its pitch, both nerve and bow o'erstretch'd ; 
The flagging weapon feebly hits the mark : 
Thus, tears and sighs forth gushing, did I burst, 
Beneath the heavy load : and thus my voice 
Was slacken'd on its way. She straight began : 
u When my desire invited thee to love 
The good, which sets a bound to our aspirings ; 
What bar of thwarting foss or linked chain 
Did meet thee, that thou so shouldst quit the hope 
Of further progress ? or what bait of ease, 
Or promise of allurement, led thee on 
Elsewhere, that thou elsewhere shouldst rather wait ? " 

1 With but lateral edge.] The words of Beatrice, when not addressed di- 
rectly to himself, but spoken to the angel of him, Dante had thought suffi- 
ciently harsh. 



-342 THE VISION. 29—56. 

A bitter sigh I drew, then scarce found voice 
To answer : hardly to these sounds my lips 
Gave utterance, wailing : •'•' Thy fair looks withdrawn. 
Things present, with deceitful pleasures, turn'd 
My steps aside." She answering spake : " Hadst thou 
Been silent, or denied what thou avow'st. 
Thou hadst not hid thy sin the more : such eye 
Observes it. But whene'er the sinner's cheek 
Breaks forth into the precious-streaming tears 
Of self-accusing, in our court the whcrl 
Of justice doth run counter to the edge 1 . 
Howe'er. that thou mayst profit by thy shame 
For errors past, and that henceforth more strength 
May arm thee, when thou hear'st the Syren-voice : 
Lay thou aside the motive to this grief, 
And lend attentive ear, while I unfold 
How opposite a way my buried rlesh 
Should have impell'd thee. Xever didst thou spy. 
In art or nature, aught so passing sweet. 
As were the limbs that in their beauteous frame 
Enclosed me. and are scatter'd now in dust. 
If sweetest thing thus fail'd thee with my death. 
What, afterward, of mortal, should thy wish 
Have tempted ? When thou first hadst felt the dart 
Of perishable things, in my departing 
For better realms, thy wing thou shouldst have prune:! 
To follow me ; and never sto : i 
To 'bide a second blow, for a slight eirl 2 . 



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57—82. PURGATORY, Canto XXXI. (343) 

Or other s:aud as transient and as vain. 
The new and inexperienced bird l awaits, 
Twice it may be, or thrice, the fowler's aim ; 
But in the sight of one whose plumes are full, 
In vain the net is spread, the arrow wing'd." 

I stood, as children silent and ashamed 
Stand, listening, with their eyes upon the earth, 
Acknowledging their fault, and self-condemn'd. 
And she resumed : " If, but to hear, thus pains thee ; 
Raise thou thy beard, and lo ! what sight shall do." 

With less reluctance yields a sturdy holm, 
Rent from its fibres by a blast, that blows 
From off the pole, or from Iarbas' land 2 , 
Than I at her behest my visage raised : 
And thus the face denoting by the beard 3 , 
I mark'd the secret sting her words convey'd. 

No sooner lifted I mine aspect up, 
Than I perceived 4 those primal creatures cease 
Their flowery sprinkling ; and mine eyes beheld 
(Yet unassured and wavering in their view) 
Beatrice ; she, who towards the mystic shape, 
That joins two natures in one form, had turned : 
And, even under shadow of her veil, 
And parted by the verdant rill that flow'd 
Between, in loveliness she seem'd as much 
Her former self surpassing, as on earth 

should be directed against those who read the poets to gratify their own in- 
clination, and not for the sake of instruction, that they may defeat the 
errors of the Gentiles." It remains to be considered whether onr Poet's 
marriage with Gemma de' Donati, and the difficulties in which that en- 
gagement involved him, may not be the object of Beatrice's displeasure. 

1 Bird.] " Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird." 
Prov. i. 17. 2 From Iarbas' land.] The south. 3 The beard.] " I 
perceived, that when she desired me to raise my beard, instead of telling me 
to lift up my head, a severe reflection was implied on my want of that wis- 
dom which should accompany the age of manhood." 4 Than I perceived.] 
I had before translated this differently, and in agreement with those edi- 
tions, which read, 

Posarsi quelle belle creature 

Da loro apparsion. 
instead of Posarsi quelle prime creature 

Da loro aspersion, 
for which reading I am indebted to Lombardi, who derives it from the 
Nidobeatina edition. By the " primal creatures " are meant the angels, who 
were scattering the flowers on Beatrice. 



(344) THE VISION. 83—116. 

All others she surpass'd. Remorseful goads 

Shot sudden through me. Each thing else, the more 

Its love had late beguiled me, now the more 

Was loathsome. On my heart so keenly smote 

The bitter consciousness, that on the ground 

O'erpower'd I fell : and what my state was then, 

She knows, who was the cause. When now my strength 

Flow'd back, returning outward from the heart, 

The lady ', whom alone I first had seen, 

I found above me. " Loose me not," she cried : 

" Loose not thy hold :" and lo ! had dragg'd me high 

As to my neck into the stream ; while she, 

Still as she drew me after, swept along, 

Swift as a shuttle, bounding o'er the wave. 

The blessed shore approaching, then was heard 
So sweetly, " Tu asperges me 2 ," that I 
May not remember, much less tell the sound. 

The beauteous dame, her arms expanding, clasp'd 
My temples, and immerged me where 'twas fit 
The wave should drench me : and, thence raising up, 
Within the fourfold dance of lovely nymphs 
Presented me so laved ; and with their arm 
They each did cover me. " Here are we nymphs, 
And in the heaven are stars 3 . Or ever earth 
Was visited of Beatrice, we, 
Appointed for her handmaids, tended on her. 
We to her eyes will lead thee : but the light 
Of gladness, that is in them, well to scan, 
Those yonder three 4 , of deeper ken than ours, 
Thy sight shall quicken." Thus began their song : 
And then they led me to the Gryphon's breast, 
Where, turn'd toward us, Beatrice stood. 
" Spare not thy vision. We have station'd thee 
Before the emeralds 5 , whence love, erewhile, 

1 The lady. 1 Matilda. 2 Tu asperges me, ,] " Purge me with hyssop, 
and I shall be clean ; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." Ps. li. 7. 
Sung by the choir, while the priest is sprinkling the people with holy water. 
3 And in the heaven are stars.] See Canto i. 24. 4 Those yonder three.] 
Faith, hope, and charity. 5 The emeralds.] The eyes of Beatrice. 

The author of Illustrations of Shakspeare, 8vo. 1807, vol. ii. p. 193, has re- 
ferred to old writers, by whom the epithet green is given to eyes, as by the 
early French poets, and by Shakspeare, Romeo and Juliet, act iii. sc. 5. 



117—146. PURGATORY, Canto XXXI. (345) 

Hath drawn his weapons on thee." As they spake, 

A thousand fervent wishes riveted 

Mine eyes upon her beaming eyes, that stood, 

Still fix'd toward the Gryphon, motionless. 

As the sun strikes a mirror, even thus 

Within those orbs the twyfold being shone ; 

For ever varying, in one figure now 

Reflected, now in other. Reader ! muse 

How wondrous in my sight it seem'd, to mark 

A thing, albeit stedfast in itself, 

Yet in its imaged semblance mutable. 

Full of amaze, and joyous, while my soul 
Fed on the viand, whereof still desire 
Grows with satiety ; the other three, 
With gesture that declared a loftier line, 
Advanced : to their own carol, on they came 
Dancing, in festive ring angelical. 

" Turn, Beatrice ! " was their song : " Oh ! turn 
Thy saintly sight on this thy faithful one, 
Who, to behold thee, many a wearisome pace 
Hath measured. Gracious at our prayer, vouchsafe 
Unveil to him thy cheeks ; that he may mark 
Thy second beauty, now conceal'd." splendour ! 
O sacred light eternal ! who is he, 
So pale with musing in Pierian shades, 
Or with that fount so lavishly imbued, 
Whose spirit should not fail him in the essay 
To represent thee such as thou didst seem, 
When under cope of the still-chiming heaven 
Thou gavest to open air thy charms reveal'd ? 

an eagle, madam, 



Hath, not so green, so quick, so fair an eye. 
Mr. Douce's conjecture, that eyes of this colour are much less common now 
than formerly, is not so probable as that writers, and especially poets, should 
at times be somewhat loose and general in applying terms expressive of 
colour, whereof an instance may be seen in some ingenious remarks by Mr. 
Blomfield on the word /cudi/sos. JEschyli Persce. Edit. 1814. Glossar. p. 107. 



(346) THE VISION. 1—26. 

canto xxxn. 



ARGUMENT. 

Dante is warned not to gaze too fixedly on Beatrice. The procession moves 
on, accompanied by Matilda, Statins, and Dante, till they reach, an ex- 
ceeding lofty tree, where divers strange chances befal. 

Mine eyes with such an eager coveting 

Were bent to rid them of their ten years' thirst l . 

No other sense was waking : and e'en they 

Were fenced on either side from heed of aught ; 

So tangled, in its custom' d toils, that smile 

Of saintly brightness drew me to itself: 

When forcibly, toward the left, my sight 

The sacred virgins turn'd ; for from their lips 

I heard the warning: sounds : <; Too rlx'd a save 2 !" 

Awhile my vision labour'd; as when late 
Upon the o'erstrained exes the sun hath smote : 
But soon 3 , to lesser object, as the view 
Was now recover'd, (lesser in respect 
To that excess of sensible, whence late 
I had perforce been sunder d.) on their right 
I mark'd that glorious army wheel, and turn, 
Against the sun and sevenfold lights, their front. 
As when, their bucklers for protection raised, 
A well-ranged troop, with portly banners eurrd, 
Wheel circling;, ere the whole can change their ground : 
E'en thus the goodly regiment of heaven, 
Proceeding, all did pass us ere the car 
Had sloped his beam. Attendant at the wheels 
The damsels turn'd ; and on the Gryphon moved 
The sacred burden, with a pace so smooth, 
No feather on him trembled. The fair dame, 

1 Their ten years' thirst.] Beatrice had been dead ten years. 

2 Too fix 'd a gaze.] The allegorical interpretation of Yellutello. whether 
it be considered as justly inferrible from the text or not, conveys so useful a 
lesson, that it deserves our notice. "The understanding is sometimes so 
intently engaged in contemplating the light of divine truth in the Scriptures, 
that it becomes dazzled, and is made less capable of attaining such know- 
ledge, than if it had sought after it with greater moderation." 3 But 
soon.] As soon as his sight was recovered, so as to bear the view of that 
glorious procession, which, splendid as it was. was yet less so than Bean-ice, 
by whom his vision had been overpowered, &e. 



27—50. PURGATORY, Canto XXXII. (347) 

Who through the wave had drawn me, companied 
By Statius and myself, pursued the wheel, 
Whose orbit, rolling, mark'd a lesser arch. 

Through the high wood, now void, (the more her blame, 
Who by the serpent was beguiled,) I pass'd, 
With step in cadence to the harmony 
Angelic. Onward had we moved, as far, 
Perchance, as arrow at three several nights 
Full wing'd had sped, when from her station down 
Descended Beatrice. With one voice 
All murmur' d "Adam ;" circling next a plant 1 
Despoil'd of flowers and leaf, on every bough. 
Its tresses 2 , spreading more as more they rose, 
Were such, as 'midst their forest wilds, for height, 
The Indians 3 might have gazed at. "Blessed thou, 
Gryphon 4 ! whose beak hath never pluck'd that tree 
Pleasant to taste : for hence the appetite 
Was warp'd to evil." Round the stately trunk 
Thus shouted forth the rest, to whom returned 
The animal twice-gender'd : " Yea ! for so 
The generation of the just are saved." 
And turning to the chariot-pole, to foot 
He drew it of the widow'd branch, and bound 
There, left unto the stock 5 whereon it grew. 

1 A plant."] Lombardi has conjectured, with much probability, that this 
tree is not (as preceding commentators had supposed) merely intended to 
represent the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but that the Roman em- 
pire is figured by it. Among the maxims maintained by our Poet, as the 
same commentator observes, were these : that one monarchy had been willed 
by Providence, and was necessary for universal peace ; and that this mon- 
archy, by right of justice and by the divine ordinance belonged to the Ro- 
man people only. His Treatise de Monarchia was written indeed to incul- 
cate these maxims, and to prove that the temporal monarchy depends 
immediately on God, and should be kept as distinct as possible from the 
authority of* the pope. 2 Its tresses.] " I saw, and behold, a tree in the 

midst of the earth, and the height thereof was great." Daniel, iv. 10. 

3 The Indians.] 

Quos oceano proprior gerit India lucos. Virg. Georg. lib. ii. 122. 

Such as at this day to Indians known. Milton , P. L. b. ix. 1102. 

4 Blessed thou, 

Gryphon 1] Our Saviour's submission to the Roman empire appears to 
be intended, and particularly his injunction, " to render unto Caesar the 
things that are Caesar's." 5 There, left unto the stock.] Dante here 
seems, I think, to intimate what he has attempted to prove at the conclusion 
of the second book de Monarchia ; namely, that our Saviour, by his suffering 
under the sentence, not of Herod, but of Pilate who was the delegate of the 















(343) THE VISION. 51—82. 

As when large floods of radiance 1 from above 
Stream, with that radiance mingled, which ascends 
Xext after setting of the scaly sign, 
Our plants then burgein, and each wears anew 
His wonted colours, ere the sun have voked 
Beneath another star his flamy steeds ; 
Thus putting forth a hue more faint than rose, 
And deeper than the violet, was renew'd 
The plant, erewhile in all its branches bare. 
Unearthly was the hymn, which then arose. 
I understood it not, nor to the end 
Endured the harmony. Had I the skill 
To pencil forth how closed the unpitying eyes 2 
Slumbering, when Syrinx warbled, (eyes that paid 
So dearly for their watching.) then, like painter, 
That with a model paints. I might design 
The manner of my falling into sleep. 
But feign who will the slumber cunningly, 
I pass it by to when I waked : and tell, 
How suddenly a flash of splendour rent 
The curtain of my sleep, and one cries out, 
" Arise : what dost thou ? " As the chosen three, 
On Tabor's mount, admitted to behold 
The blossoming of that fair tree 3 , whose fruit 
Is coveted of angels, and doth make 
Perpetual feast in heaven ; to themselves 
Eeturning, at the word whence deeper sleeps 4 
TTere broken, they their tribe diminish; d saw ; 
Both Moses and Elias gone, and changed 
The stole their master wore ; thus to myself 
Returning, over me beheld I stand 
The piteous one 5 , who, cross the stream, had brought 

Roman emperor, acknowledged and confirmed the supremacy of that emperor 
over the whole world : for if. as he argues, all mankind were become sinners 
throngh the sin of Adam, no punishment, that was inflicted by one who had 
a right of jurisdiction over less than the whole human race, could have been 
sufficient to satisfy for the sins of all men. See note to Paradise, c. vi. 89. 

1 When large foods of radiance.] When the sun enters into Aries, the 
constellation next to that of the Fish. 2 The unpitying eyes.'] See Ovid, 
Met. lib. i. 6S9. 3 The blossoming of -that fair tree.] Our Saviour's trans- 
figuration. •• As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my be- 
loved among the sons." >:':or:\: . v .?. ii. 3. 4 Deeper sleeps.] The 
sleep of death, in the instance of the ruler of the Synagogue's daughter and 
of Lazarus. 5 The piteous one.] Matilda. 



83—118. PURGATORY, Canto XXXII. (349) 

My steps. "And where," all doubting, I exclaim'd, 
" Is Beatrice ? " — " See her," she replied, 
" Beneath the fresh leaf, seated on its root 
Behold the associate choir, that circles her. 
The others, with a melody more sweet 
And more profound, journeying to higher realms, 
Upon the Gryphon tend." If there her words 
Were closed, I know not ; but mine eyes had now 
Ta'en view of her, by whom all other thoughts 
Were barr'd admittance. On the very ground 
Alone she sat, as she had there been left 
A guard upon the wain, which I beheld 
Bound to the twyform beast.. The seven nymphs 
Did make themselves a cloister round about her ; 
And, in their hands, upheld those lights l secure 
From blast septentrion and the gusty south. 

" A little while thou shalt be forester here ; 
And citizen shalt be, for ever with me, 
Of that true Rome 2 , wherein Christ dwells a Roman. 
To profit the misguided world, keep now 
Thine eyes upon the car ; and what thou seest, 
Take heed thou write, returning to that place 3 ." 

Thus Beatrice : at whose feet inclined 
Devout, at her behest, my thought and eyes, 
I, as she bade, directed. Never fire, 
With so swift motion, forth a stormy cloud 
Leap'd downward from the welkin's furthest bound, 
As I beheld the bird of Jove 4 descend 
Down through the tree ; and, as he rush'd, the rind 
Disparting crush beneath him ; buds much more, 
And leaflets. On the car, with all his might 
He struck ; whence, staggering, like a ship it reel'd, 
At random driven, to starboard now, o'ercome, 
And now to larboard, by the vaulting waves. 

Next, springing up into the chariot's womb, 
A fox 5 I saw, with hunger seeming pined 

1 Those lights.] The tapers of gold. 2 Of that true Rome. ,] Of heaven. 

3 To that place.] To the earth. 4 The bird of Jove.] This, which is 
imitated from Ezekiel, xyii. 3, 4, is typical of the persecutions which the 
church sustained from the Roman emperors. 5 A fox.] By the fox 
probably is represented the treachery of the heretics. 



(350) THE VISION. Ilr — 14-S. 

Of all good food. But, for his ugly sin? 

The saintly maid rebuking him, away 

Scampering he turn'd, fast as his hide-bound corpse 

Would bear him. Next, from whence before he came, 

I saw the eagle dart into the hull 

O' the car, and leave it with his feathers lined 1 : 

And then a voice, like that which issues forth 

From heart with sorrow rived, did issue forth 

From heaven, and, " O poor bark of mine !* it cried, 

" How badly art thou freighted.'' Then it seem'd 

That the earth open'd, between either wheel ; 

And I beheld a dragon 2 issue thence, 

That through the chariot fix'd his forked train ; 

And likr . wasp, that draggeth back the sting, 

So drawing forth his baleful train, he dragged 

Part of the bottom forth ; and went his way, 

Exulting. What remain' d, as lively turf 

With green herb, so did clothe itself with plumes 3 , 

^niich haply had. with purpose chaste and kind, 

Been offer d : and therewith were clothed the wheels, 

Both one and other, and the beam, so quickly, 

A sigh were not breathed sooner. Thus transformed, 

The holy struc t ure , through its several parts, 

Did put forth heads ; three on the beam, and one 

On every side : the first like oxen horn'd; 

But with a single horn upon their front, 

The four. Like monster, sight hath never seen. 

O'er it 5 niethought there sat, secure as rock 

On mountain's lofty top, a shameless whore, 

^Vhose ken roved loosely round her. At her side, 

With his feathers lined.'] In allusion to the donations made by Con- 
st antine to the ehurch. * A dragon.] Probably Mahomet ; for what 
Lombardi offers to the contrary is for from satisfactory. * With phones.] 
The increase of wealth and temporal dominion, which followed the supposed 
gift of Constantine. 4 Ei-cd-s.] Ey zdi ^vei Zri-Ls. :: is npi 5ri ^Ith 
sufficient probability, are meant the seven capital sins: by ttr three with 
two horns, pride, anger, and avarice, injurious both to man himself and to 
his neighbour : by the four with one horn, gluttony, gloominess, concupis- 
cence, and envy, hurtful, at least in their primary effects, chiefly to him who 
is guilty of them. Tellutello refers to Rev. xviL Landino, who is followed 
by Lombardi, understands the seven heads to signify the semen sacraments, 
and the ten horns the ten cr mrmfliidin<»irty . Compare TTpU, c. tctx- 112. 

b O'er it.] The harlot is thought to represent the state of the church 
under Boniface Vill. and the giant to figure Philip IV. of France. 



149—157. PURGATORY, Canto XXXII. (351) 

As 't were that none might bear her off, I saw 
A giant stand ; and ever and anon 
They mingled kisses. But, her lustful eyes 
Chancing on me to wander, that fell minion 
Scourged her from head to foot all o'er ; then full 
Of jealousy, and fierce with rage, unloosed 
The monster, and dragg'd on J , so far across 
The forest, that from me its shades alone 
Shielded the harlot and the new-form' d brute. 



canto xxxin. 



ARGUMENT. 

After a hymn sung, Beatrice leaves the tree, and takes with her the seven 
virgins, Matilda, Statius, and Dante. She then darkly predicts to our 
Poets some future events. Lastly, the whole band arrive at the fountain, 
from whence the two streams, Lethe and Eunoe, separating, flow different 
ways ; and Matilda, at the desire of Beatrice, causes our Poet to drink of 
the latter stream. 

" The heathen 2 , Lord ! are come :" responsive thus, 

The trinal now, and now the virgin band 

Quaternion, their sweet psalmody began, 

TTeeping ; and Beatrice listen' d, sad 

And sighing, to the song, in such a mood, 

That Mary, as she stood beside the cross, 

Was scarce more changed. But when they gave her place 

To speak, then, risen upright on her feet, 

She, with a colour glowing bright as fire, 

Did answer : " Yet a little while 3 , and ye 

Shall see me not ; and, my beloved sisters ! 

Again a little while, and ye shall see me." 

Before her then she marshal'd all the seven ; 
And, beckoning only, motion'd me, the dame, 
And that remaining sage 4 , to follow her. 

So on she pass'd ; and had not set, I ween, 
Her tenth step to the ground, when, with mine eyes, 

1 Dragg'd on.] The removal of the Pope's residence from Rome to 
Avignon is pointed at. 

2 The heathen.] " God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance.'' 
Psalm lxxix. 1. 3 Yet a little while.] " A little while, and ye shall not 
see me ; and again a little while, and ye shall see me." John, xvi. 16. 

4 That remaining sage.] Statius. 



(352) THE VISION. 18—43. 

Her eyes encounter'd ; and, with visage mild, 

" So mend thy pace," she cried, " that if my words 

Address thee, thou mayst still be aptly placed 

To hear them." Soon as duly to her side 

I now had hasten'd : " Brother ! " she began, 

" Why makest thou no attempt at questioning, 

As thus we walk together ? " Like to those 

Who, speaking with too reverent an awe 

Before their betters, draw not forth the voice 

Alive unto their lips, befel me then 

That I in sounds imperfect thus began : 

" Lady ! what I have need of, that thou know'st ; 

And what will suit my need." She answering thus : 

" Of fearfulness and shame, I will that thou 

Henceforth do rid thee ; that thou speak no more, 

As one who dreams l . Thus far be taught of me : 

The vessel which thou saw'st the serpent break, 

Was, and is not 2 : let him, who hath the blame, 

Hope not to scare God's vengeance with a sop 3 . 

Without an heir for ever shall not be 

That eagle 4 , he, who left the chariot plumed, 

Which monster made it first and next a prey. 

Plainly I view, and therefore speak, the stars 

E'en now approaching, whose conjunction, free 

From all impediment and bar, brings on 

A season, in the which, one sent from God, 



As one who dreams.] Imitated by Petrarch, L. i. s. 41. 

Se parole fai, 



Sono imperfette e quasi d'uom che sogna. 
2 Was, and is not.] "The beast that was, and is not." Rev. xvii. 11. 
3 Hope not to scare God's vengeance with a sop.] " Let not him who hath 
occasioned the destruction of the church, that vessel which the serpent brake, 
hope to appease the anger of the Deity by any outward acts of religious, or 
rather superstitious ceremony ; such as was that, in our Poet's time, per- 
formed by a murderer at Florence, who imagined himself secure from 
vengeance, if he ate a sop of bread in wine upon the grave of the person 
murdered, within the space of nine days." 4 That eagle.] He prognosti- 
cates that the Emperor of Germany will not always continue to submit to the 
usurpations of the Pope, and foretels the coming of Henry VII. Duke of 
Luxemburgh, signified by the numerical figures DVX ; or, as Lombardi 
supposes, of Can Grande della Scala, appointed the leader of the Ghibelline 
forces. It is unnecessary to point out the imitation of the Apocalypse in the 
manner of this prophecy. Troya assigns reasons for applying the prediction 
to Uguccione della Faggiola rather than to Henry or Can Grande. Veltro 
Allegorico di Dante. Ediz. 1826, p. 143. But see my note. H. i. 102. 



44—66. PURGATORY, Canto XXXIII. (353) 

(Five hundred, five, and ten, do mark him out,) 

That foul one, and the accomplice of her guilt, 

The giant, both, shall slay. And if perchance 

My saying, dark as Themis or as Sphinx, 

Fail to persuade thee, (since like them it foils 

The intellect with blindness,) yet erelong 

Events shall be the Naiads \ that will solve 

This knotty riddle; and no damage light 2 

On flock or field. Take heed ; and as these words 

By me are utter'd, teach them even so 

To those who live that life, which is a race 

To death : and when thou writest them, keep in mind 

Not to conceal how thou hast seen the plant, 

That twice 3 hath now been spoiPd. This whoso robs, 

This whoso plucks, with blasphemy of deed 

Sins against God, who for his use alone 

Creating hallow'd it. For taste of this, 

In pain and in desire, five thousand years 4 

And upward, the first soul did yearn for him 

Who punish'd in himself the fatal gust. 

" Thy reason slumbers, if it deem this height, 
And summit thus inverted 5 , of the plant, 
Without due cause : and were not vainer thoughts, 



1 The Xa'iads.] Dante, it is observed, has been led into a mistake by a 
corruption in the text of Ovid's Metam. 1. vii. 757, where he fonnd — 

Carmina Naiades non intellecta priorum 

Solvunt. 
instead of Carmina Laiades non intellecta priorum 

Solverat. 
as it has been since corrected by Heinsius. Lombardi, after Rosa Morando, 
questions the propriety of this emendation, and refers to Pausanias, where 
"the Nymphs" are spoken of as expounders of oracles, for a vindication of 
the poet's accuracy. Should the reader blame me for not departing from 
the error of the original, (if error it be,) he may substitute 

Events shall be the (Edipus will solve, &c. 

2 No damage light.] Protinus Aoniis immissa est bellua Thebis, 

Cessit et exitio multis ; pecorique sibique 
Ruricolse pavere feram. Ovid, ibid. 

3 Twice.] First by the eagle and next by the giant. See the last Canto, 
v. 110, and v. 154. 4 Five thousand years.] That such was the opinion 
of the church, Lombardi shows by a reference to Baronius. Martyr. Rom. 
Dec. 25. Anno a creatione mundi, quando a principio creavit Deus ccelum 
et terrain, quinquies millesimo centesimo nonagesimo — Jesus Christus — 
conceprus. Edit. Col. Agripp. 4to. 1610, p. 858. 5 Inverted.] The 
branches, unlike those of other trees, spreading more widely the higher they 
rose. See the last Canto, v. 39. 

2 A 



(354) THE VISION. 67—87. 

As Elsa's numbing waters \ to thy soul, 

And their fond pleasures had not dyed it dark 

As Pyramus the mulberry ; thou hadst seen 2 , 

In such momentous circumstance alone, 

God's equal justice morally implied 

In the forbidden tree. But since I mark thee, 

In understanding, harden'd into stone, 

And, to that hardness, spotted too and stain'd, 

So that thine eye is dazzled at my word ; 

I will, that, if not written, yet at least 

Painted thou take it in thee, for the cause, 

That one brings home his staff in wreathed with palm 3 ." 

I thus : " As wax by seal, that changeth not 
Its impress, now is stamp'd my brain by thee. 
But wherefore soars thy wish'd-for speech so high 
Beyond my sight, that loses it the more, 
The more it strains to reach it?" — " To the end 
That thou mayst know," she answer'd straight, "the 
That thou hast follow'd ; and how far behind, [school, 
When following my discourse, its learning halts : 
And mayst behold your art 4 , from the divine 

1 Elsa's numbing waters.'] The Elsa, a little stream, which flows into the 
Arno about twenty miles below Florence, is said to possess a petrifying quality. 
Fazio degli Uberti, at the conclusion of Cap. viii. 1. 3, of the Dittamondo, 
mentions a successful experiment he had himself made of the property here 
attributed to it. 2 Thou hadst seen.] This is obscure. But it would seem 
as if he meant to inculcate his faTourite doctrine of the inviolability of the 
empire, and of the care taken by Providence to protect it. 3 That one 
brings home his staff inter eathed with palm.] " For the same cause that the 
palmer, returning from Palestine, brings home his staff, or bourdon, bound 
with palm," that is, to show where he has been. 

Che si reca T bordon di palma cinto. 
" It is to be understood," says our Poet in the Vita Nuova, "that people, 
who go on the service of the Most High, are probably named in three ways. 
They are named palmers, inasmuch as they go beyond sea, from whence 
they often bring back the palm. Inasmuch as they go to the house of 
Galicia, they are called pilgrims ; because the sepulchre of St. James was 
further from his country than that of any other Apostle. They are called 
Romei," (for which I know of no other word we have in English except 
Roamers,) "inasmuch as they go to Rome." p. 275. "In regard to the 
word bourdon, why it has been applied to a pilgrim's staff, it is not easy to 
guess. I believe, however, that this name has been given to such sort of 
staves, because pilgrims usually travel and perform their pilgrimages on foot, 
their staves serving them instead of horses or mules, then called bourdons 
and burdones, by writers in the middle ages." Mr. Johnes's Translation 
of Joinville's Memoirs, Dissertation xv. by M. du Cange, p. 152, 4to edit. 
l"he word is thrice used by Chaucer in the Romaunt of the Rose. 4 Mayst 
behold your art.] The second persons, singular and plural, are here used 



88—115. PURGATORY, Canto XXXIII. (355) 

As distant, as the disagreement is 

'Twixt earth and heaven's most high and rapturous orb." 

" I not remember," I replied, " that e'er 
I was estranged from thee ; nor for such fault 
Doth conscience chide me." Smiling she return'd : 
" If thou canst not remember, call to mind 
How lately thou hast drunk of Lethe's wave ; 
And, sure as smoke doth indicate a flame, 
In that forgetfulness itself conclude 
Blame from thy alienated will incurr'd. 
From henceforth, verily, my words shall be 
As naked, as will suit them to appear 
In thy unpractised view." More sparkling now, 
And with retarded course, the sun possess'd 
The circle of mid-day, that varies still 
As the aspect varies of each several clime ; 
When, as one, sent in vaward of a troop 
For escort, pauses, if perchance he spy 
Vestige of somewhat strange and rare ; so paused l 
The sevenfold band, arriving at the verge 
Of a dun umbrage hoar, such as is seen, 
Beneath green leaves and gloomy branches, oft 
To overbrow a bleak and alpine cliff. 
And, where they stood, before them, as it seem'd, 
I, Tigris and Euphrates 2 both, beheld 
Forth from one fountain issue ; and, like friends, 
Linger at parting. " O enlightening beam ! 
O glory of our kind ! beseech thee say 

intentionally by our author, the one referring to himself alone, the second 
to mankind in general. Compare Hell, xi. 107. But I will follow the ex- 
ample of Brunck, who in a note on a passage in the Philoctetes of Sophocles, 
v. 369, where a similar distinction requires to be made, says that it would be 
ridiculous to multiply instances in a matter so well known. l So paused.] 
Lombardi imagines that the seven nymphs, who represent the four cardinal 
and the three evangelical virtues, are made to stop at the verge of the shade, 
because retirement is the friend of every virtuous quality and spiritual gift. 
2 /, Tigris and Euphrates.'] 

Quaque caput rapido tollit cum Tigride magnus 
Euphrates, quos non diversis fontibus edit 
Persis. Lucan, Phars. lib. iii. 258. 

Tigris et Euphrates uno se fonte resolvunt. 

Boetius,de Consol. Philosoph. lib. v. Metr. 1. 

la oltre ond' esce 

D'un medesimo fonte Eufrate e Tigre. 

Petrarca, Son. Mie Venture, $c. 
2 a 2 



(356) THE VISION. 116—142. 

What water this, which, from one source derived, 
Itself removes to distance from itself?" 

To such entreaty answer thus was made : 
" Entreat Matilda, that she teach thee this." 

And here, as one who clears himself of blame 
Imputed, the fair dame return'd : " Of me 
He this and more hath learnt ; and I am safe 
That Lethe's water hath not hid it from him." 

And Beatrice : " Some more pressing care, 
That oft the memory 'reaves, perchance hath made 
His mind's eye dark. But lo, where Eunoe flows ! 
Lead thither ; and, as thou art wont, revive 
His fainting virtue." As a courteous spirit, 
That proffers no excuses, but as soon 
As he hath token of another's will, 
Makes it his own ; when she had ta'en me, thus 
The lovely maiden moved her on, and call'd 
To Statius, with an air most lady-like : 
" Come thou with him." Were further space allow'd, 
Then, Reader ! might I sing, though but in part, 
That beverage, with whose sweetness I had ne'er 
Been sated. But, since all the leaves are full, 
Appointed for this second strain, mine art 
With warning bridle checks me. I return'd 
From the most holy wave, regenerate, 
E'en as new plants renew'd l with foliage new, 
Pure and made apt for mounting to the stars. 

1 Renew'd.] come piante novelle 

Rinnovellate da novella fronda. 
So new this new-borne knight to battle new did rise. 

Spetiser, Faery Queene, b. i. c. xi st. 34. 
" Rinnovellate " is another of those words which Chaucer in vain endea- 
voured to introduce into our language from the Italian, unless it be supposed 
that he rather borrowed it from the French. " Certes ones a yere at the 
lest way it is lawful to ben houseled, for sothely ones a yere all things in the 
earth renovelen. ,, The Persone's Tale. 



THE VISION OF DANTE. 



^aratriee* 



CANTO I 



ARGUMENT. 

The Poet ascends with. Beatrice towards the first heaven ; and is, by her, 
resolved of certain doubts which arise in his niind. 

His glory, by whose might all things are moved, 
Pierces the universe 1 , and in one part 
Sheds more resplendence, elsewhere less. In heaven, 
That largeliest of his light partakes, was I, 
Witness of things, which, to relate again, 
Surpasseth power of him who comes from thence ; 
For that, so near approaching its desire, 
Our intellect is to such depth absorb'd, 
That memory cannot follow. Nathless all, 
That in my thoughts I of that sacred realm 
Could store, shall now 2 be matter of my song. 
Benign Apollo 3 ! this last labour aid ; 



1 Pierces the universe.] Per l'universo penetra, &c. 

his magnetic beam, that gently warms 

The universe, and to each inward part 

"With gentle penetration, though unseen, 

Shoots invisible virtue ev'n to the deep. Milton, P. L. b. iii. 586. 

2 Shall now.] Sara ora materia del mio canto. 

Shall be the copious matter of my song. Ibid. b. iii. 413. 

3 Benign Apollo.] Chaucer has imitated this invocation very closely, at 
the beginning of the Third Booke of Fame. 

If, divine vertue, thou Thou shalt see me go as blive 
"Wilt helpe me to shewe now Unto the next laurer I see, 
That in my head ymarked is, And kisse it, for it is thy tree. 
Now entre thou my breast anone. 



(358) THE VISION. 13—36. 

And make me such a vessel of thy worth, 

As thy own laurel claims, of me beloved. 

Thus far l hath one of steep Parnassus' brows 

Sufficed me ; henceforth, there is need of both 

For my remaining enterprize. Do thou 2 

Enter into my bosom, and there breathe 

So, as when Marsyas 3 by thy hand was dragg'd 

Forth from his limbs, unsheathed. O power divine ! 

If thou to me of thine impart so much, 

That of that happy realm the shadow'd form 

Traced in my thoughts I may set forth to view ; 

Thou shalt behold me of thy favour'd tree 

Come to the foot, and crown myself with leaves : 

For to that honour thou, and my high theme 

Will fit me. If but seldom, mighty Sire ! 

To grace his triumph, gathers thence a wreath 

Csesar, or bard 4 , (more shame for human wills 

Depraved,) joy to the Delphic god must spring 

From the Peneian foliage, when one breast 

Is with such thirst inspired. From a small spark 5 

Great flame hath risen : after me, perchance, 

Others with better voice may pray, and gain, 

From the Cyrrhsean city, answer kind. 

Through divers passages, the world's bright lamp 

1 Thus far.] He appears to mean nothing more than that this part of his 
poem will require a greater exertion of his powers than the former. 2 Do 
thou.'] Make me thine instrument ; and, through me, utter such sound as 
when thou didst contend with Marsyas. 3 Marsyas.] Ovid, Met. lib. vi. 
fab. 7- Compare Boccaccio, II Filocopo, lib. v. p. 25. v. ii. Ediz. Fir. 1723. 
" Egli nel mio petto entri," &c. — " May he enter my bosom, and let my 
voice sound like his own, when he made that daring mortal deserve to come 
forth unsheathed from his limbs.' ' 

4 Ccesar, or bard.] So Petrarch, Son. Par. Prima. 

Arbor vittoriosa trionfale, 

Onor d' imperadori e di poeti. 
And Frezzi, II Quadrir. lib. iii. cap. 14. 

alloro, 

Che imperatori e' poeti corona. 
And Spenser, F. Q. b. i. c. 1. st. 9. 

The laurel, meed of mighty conquerours, 

And poets sage. 

5 From a small spark.] 

iroWav r' opei irvp s|f ivos 

"ETrip/ULdTos kvdopov atcr^raicrev v\av. 
Upon the mountain from one spark hath leapt 
The fire, that hath a mighty forest burn'd. Pindar, Pyth. iii. 67- 



37—59. PARADISE, Canto I. (359) 

Rises to mortals ; but through that 1 which joins 

Four circles with the threefold cross, in best 

Course, and in happiest constellation 2 set, 

He comes ; and, to the worldly wax, best gives 

Its temper and impression. Morning there 3 , 

Here eve was well nigh by such passage made ; 

And whiteness had o'erspread that hemisphere, 

Blackness the other part ; when to the left 4 

I saw Beatrice turn'd, and on the sun 

Gazing, as never eagle fix'd his ken. 

As from the first a second beam 5 is wont 

To issue, and reflected upwards rise, 

Even as a pilgrim bent on his return ; 

So of her act, that through the eyesight pass'd 

Into my fancy, mine was form'd : and straight, 

Beyond our mortal wont, I fix'd mine eyes 

Upon the sun. Much is allow'd us there, 

That here exceeds our power ; thanks to the place 

Made 6 for the dwelling of the human kind. 

I suffer'd it not long ; and yet so long, 
That I beheld it bickering sparks around, 
As iron that comes boiling from the fire 7 . 
And suddenly upon the day appealed 8 

1 Through that.'] ""Where the four circles, the horizon, the zodiac, the 
equator, and the equinoctial colure join ; the last three intersecting each 
other so as to form three crosses, as may be seen in the armillary sphere." 

2 In happiest constellatio7i.~] Aries. Some understand the planet Venus 
by the " miglior stella." 3 Morning there.] It was morning where he 
then was, and about eventide on the earth. 4 To the left.] Being in the 
opposite hemisphere to ours, Beatrice, that she may behold the rising sun, 
turns herself to the left. 5 As from the first a second bea?n.] " Like a 
reflected sunbeam," which he compares to a pilgrim hastening homewards. 

Ne siniil tanto mai raggio secondo 
Dal primo usci. Filicaja, canz. xv. st. 4. 

Sicut vir in peregrinatione constitutus, omni studio, omnique conatu do- 
mum redire festinat, ac retrorsum non respicit sed ad domum, quam reli- 
querat, reverti desiderat. Alberici Visio, § 25. 6 Made.] And therefore 
best adapted, says Venturi, to the good temperament and vigour of the 
human body and its faculties. The Poet speaks of the terrestrial paradise 
where he then was. 7 As iron that comes boiling from the fire.] Arden- 
tem, et scintillas emittentem, ac si ferrum cum de fornace trahitur. Alberici 
Visio, § 5. This simile is repeated, § 16. So Milton, P. L. b. hi. 594. 

As glowing iron with fire. 

8 Upon the day appear' d.] 

If the heaven had ywonne 

AH new of God another sunne, Chaucer t First Booke of Fame. 



(360) THE VISION. 60—78. 

A day new-risen ; as he, who hath the power, 
Had with another sun bedeck'd the sky. 

Her eyes fast fix'd on the eternal wheels 1 , 
Beatrice stood unmoved ; and I with ken 
Fix'd upon her, from upward gaze removed, 
At her aspect, such inwardly became 
As Glaucus 2 , when he tasted of the herb 
That made him peer among the ocean gods : 
Words may not tell of that transhuman change ; 
And therefore let the example serve, though weak, 
For those whom grace hath better proof in store. 

If 3 I were only what thou didst create, 
Then newly, Love ! by whom the heaven is ruled ; 
Thou know' st, who by thy light didst bear me up. 
Whenas the wheel which thou dost ever guide, 
Desired Spirit ! with its harmony 4 , 
Temper'd of thee and measured, charm'd mine ear 
Then seem'd to me so much of heaven 5 to blaze 
"With the sun's flame, that rain or flood ne'er made 

E par ch' aggiunga un altro sole al cielo. Ariosto, O. F. c. x. st. 109 
Ed ecco un lustro lampeggiar d' intorno 
Che sole a sole aggiunse e giorno a giorno. 

Marino, Adone. c. xi. st. 27. 
Quando a paro col sol ma piu lucente 
L'angelo gli appari sulT oriente. Tasso, G. L. c. i. 

seems another morn 

Risen on mid-noon. Milton, P. L. b. v. 311. 
Compare Euripides, Ion. 1550. 'AvQrikiov TrpoarooTrov. 

1 Eternal wheels.'] The heavens, eternal, and always circling. 

2 As Glaucus.] Ovid, Met. Kb. xiii. fab. 9. Plato, in the tenth book of 
the Republic, makes a very noble comparison from Glaucus, but applies it 
differently. Edit. Bipont. vol. vii. p. 317. Berkeley appears not to have been 
aware of the passage, when he says that " Proclus compares the soul, in her 
descent, invested with growing prejudices, to Glaucus diving to the bottom 
of the sea, and there contracting divers coats of sea- weed, coral, and shells, 
which stick close to him, and conceal his true shape." Siris, Ed. 1744. p. 151. 

3 If] " Thou, O divine Spirit, knowest whether I had not risen above my 
human nature, and were not merely such as thou hadst then formed me." 

4 Harmony.) The harmony of the spheres. 

And after that the melodie herd he 
That cometh of thilke speris thryis three, 
That welles of musike ben and melodie 
In this world here, and cause of harmonie. 

Chaucer, The Assemble of Foules. 

In their motion harmony divine 

So smooths her charming tones, that God's own ear 
Listens delighted. Milton, P. L. b. v. 627. 

5 So much of heaven.] The sphere of fire, as Lombardi well explains it. 



79—115. PARADISE, Canto I. (361) 

A lake so broad. The newness of the sound, 
And that great light, inflamed me with desire, 
Keener than e'er was felt, to know their cause. 

Whence she, who saw me, clearly as myself, 
To calm my troubled mind, before I ask'd, 
Open'd her lips, and gracious thus began : 
" With false imagination thou thyself 
Makest dull ; so that thou seest not the thing, 
Which thou hadst seen, had that been shaken off. 
Thou art not on the earth as thou believest ; 
For lightning, scaped from its own proper place, 
Ne'er ran, as thou hast hither now return'd." 

Although divested of my first-raised doubt 
By those brief words accompanied with smiles, 
Yet in new doubt was I entangled more, 
And said : " Already satisfied, I rest 
From admiration deep ; but now admire 
How I above those lighter bodies rise." 

Whence, after utterance of a piteous sigh, 
She towards me bent her eyes, with such a look, 
As on her frenzied child a mother casts ; 
Then thus began : u Among themselves all things 
Have order ; and from hence the form 1 , which makes 
The universe resemble God. In this 
The higher creatures see the printed steps 
Of that eternal worth, which is the end 
Whither the line is drawn 2 . All natures lean, 
In this their order, diversly ; some more, 
Some less approaching to their primal source. 
Thus they to different havens are moved on 
Through the vast sea of being, and each one 
With instinct given, that bears it in its course : 
This to the lunar sphere directs the fire ; 
This moves the hearts of mortal animals ; 
This the brute earth together knits, and binds. 
Nor only creatures, void of intellect, 
Are aim'd at by this bow ; but even those, 

1 From hence the form.] This order it is, that gives to the uinVerse the 
form of unity, and therefore of resemblance to God. 2 Whither the line is 
draicn.] All things, as they have their beginning from the Supreme Being, 
so are they referred to Him again. 



(362) THE VISION. 116—134. 

That have intelligence and love, are pierced. 

That Providence, who so well orders all, 

With her own light makes ever calm the heaven l , 

In which the substance, that hath greatest speed 2 , 

Is turn'd : and thither now, as to our seat 

Predestined, we are carried by the force 

Of that strong cord, that never looses dart 

But at fair aim and glad. Yet it is true, 

That as, oft-times, but ill accords the form 

To the design of art, through sluggishness 3 

Or unreplying matter ; so this course 4 

Is sometimes quitted by the creature, who 

Hath power, directed thus, to bend elsewhere ; 

As from a cloud the fire is seen to fall, 

From its original impulse warp'd to earth, 

By vitious fondness. Thou no more admire 

Thy soaring, (if I rightly deem,) than lapse 

Of torrent downwards from a mountain's height. 

There would 5 in thee for wonder be more cause, 

1 The heaven.] The empyrean, which is always motionless. 

2 The substance, that hath greatest speedy The prinruni mobile. 

3 Through sluggishness .] 

Perch' a risponder la materia e sorda. 
So Filicaja, canz. vi. st. 9. 

Perche a risponder la discordia e sorda. 
" The workman hath in his heart a purpose, he carrieth in mind the whole 
form which his work should have ; there wanteth not in him skill and desire 
to bring his labour to the best effect ; only the matter, which he hath to 
work on, is unframable." Hooker's Eccl. Polity, b. v. § 9. Our Poet, in 
his De Monarchic, has expressed the same thought more fully. " Sciendum, 
&c." lib. ii. p. 115. " We must know, that as art is found in a triple degree, 
in the mind that is of the artist, in the instrument, and in the matter formed 
by art, so we may contemplate nature also in a triple degree. For nature is 
in the mind of the first mover, who is God ; then in heaven, as in an instru- 
ment, by means of which the similitude of the eternal goodness is unfolded 
in variable matter ; and, as the artist being perfect, and the instrument in 
the best order, if there is any fault in the form of art, it is to be imputed 
only to the matter ; so, since God reaches to the end of perfection, and his 
instrument, which is heaven, is not in any wise deficient of due perfection, 
(as appears from what we know by philosophy concerning heaven,) it remain- 
eth that whatever fault is in inferior things, is a fault of the matter worked 
on, and clean beside the intention of God and of heaven." 

4 This course.] Some beings, abusing the liberty given them by God, 
are repugnant to the order established by Him. 

5 There would.] Hence, perhaps, Milton : 

in our proper motion we ascend 

Up to our native seat : descent and fall 

To us were adverse. P. L. b. ii. v. 77. 



135—137. PARADISE, Canto I. (363) 

If, free of hinderance, thou hadst stay'd below, 
As living fire unmoved upon the earth." 

So said, she turn'd toward the heaven her face. 



CANTO H. 



ARGUMENT. 

Dante and his celestial guide enter the moon. The cause of the spots or 
shadows, which appear in that body, is explained to him. 

All ye, who in small bark x have following sail'd, 

Eager to listen, on the adventurous track 

Of my proud keel, that singing cuts her way, 

Backward return with speed, and your own shores 

Revisit ; nor put out to open sea, 

Where losing me, perchance ye may remain 

Bewilder'd in deep maze. The way I pass, 

Ne'er yet was run : Minerva breathes the gale ; 

Apollo guides me ; and another Nine, 

To my rapt sight, the arctic beams reveal. 

Ye other few who have outstretch'd the neck 

Timely for food of angels, on which here 

They live, yet never know satiety ; 

Through the deep brine ye fearless may put out 

Your vessel ; marking well the furrow broad 

Before you in the wave, that on both sides 

Equal returns. Those, glorious, who pass'd o'er 

To Colchos, wonder'd not as ye will do, 

When they saw Jason following the plough. 

The increate perpetual thirst 2 , that draws 
Toward the realm of God's own form, bore us 
Swift almost as the heaven ye behold. 

Beatrice upward gazed, and I on her ; 
And in such space as on the notch a dart 
Is placed, then loosen'd flies, I saw myself 

1 In small bark.] Con la barchetta mia cantando in rima. 

Pulci, Morg. Magg. c. xxviii. 
Io me n'andro con la barchetta mia, 
Quanto l'acqua comporta un picciol legno. Ibid. 
Say, shall my little bark attendant sail ? Pope, Essay on Man, Ep. iv. 

2 The increate perpetual thirst.] The desire of celestial beatitude, natural 
to the soul. 



(364) THE VISION. 26—53. 

Arrived, where wonderous thing engaged my sight. 
Whence she, to whom no care of mine was hid, 
Turning to me, with aspect glad as fair, 
Bespake me : " Gratefully direct thy mind 
To God, through whom to this first star 1 we come." 

Meseem'd as if a cloud had cover'd us, 
Translucent, solid, firm, and polisk'd bright, 
Like adamant, which the sun's beam had smit. 
Within itself the ever-during pearl 
Received us ; as the wave a ray of light 
Receives, and rests unbroken. If I then 
Was of corporeal frame, and it transcend 
Our weaker thought, how one dimension thus 
Another could endure, which needs must be 
If body enter body ; how much more 
Must the desire inflame us to behold 
That essence, which discovers by what means 
God and our nature join'd ! There will be seen 
That, which we hold through faith ; not shown by proof, 
But in itself intelligibly plain, 
E'en as the truth 2 that man at first believes. 

I answer'd : " Lady ! I with thoughts devout, 
Such as I best can frame, give thanks to him, 
Who hath removed me from the mortal world. 
But tell, I pray thee, whence the gloomy spots 
Upon this body, which below on earth 
Give rise to talk of Cain 3 in fabling quaint ?" 

She somewhat smiled, then spake : " If mortals err 

1 This first star.] The moon. 2 E'e?i as the truth.] " Like a truth, 
that does not need demonstration, but is self-evident." Thus Plato, at the 
conclusion of the Sixth Book of the Republic, lays down four principles of 
information in the human mind : " 1st, intuition of self-evident truth, 
vor}GL<s ; 2nd, demonstration by reasoning, Siavoia ; 3rd, belief on testimony, 
7rt(TTis; 4th, probability, or conjecture, ziKacria" I cannot resist adding a 
passage to the like effect from Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, b. ii. § 7. 
" The truth is, that the mind of man desireth eyennore to know the truth, 
according to the most infallible certainty which the nature of things can 
yield. The greatest assurance generally with all men, is that which we 
have by plain aspect and intuitive beholding. Where we cannot attain unto 
this, there what appeareth to be true, by strong and invincible demonstra- 
tion, such as wherein it is not by any way possible to be deceived, thereunto 
the mind doth necessarily assent, neither is it in the choice thereof to do 
otherwise. And in case these both do fail, then which way greatest proba- 
bility leadeth, thither the mind doth evermore incline." ' 3 Cam.] Com- 
pare Hell, Canto xx. 123, and note. 



54—80. PARADISE, Canto II. (365) 

In their opinion, when the key of sense 

Unlocks not, surely wonder's weapon keen 

Ought not to pierce thee : since thou find'st, the wings 

Of reason to pursue the senses' flight 

Are short. But what thy own thought is, declare." 

Then I : " What various here above appears, 
Is caused, I deem, by bodies dense or rare 1 ." 

She then resumed : " Thou certainly wilt see 
In falsehood thy belief o'erwhelm'd, if well 
Thou listen to the arguments which I 
Shall bring to face it. The eighth sphere displays 
Numberless lights 2 , the which, in kind and size, 
May be remark'd of different aspects : 
If rare or dense of that were cause alone, 
One single virtue then would be in all ; 
Alike distributed, or more, or less. 
Different virtues needs must be the fruits 
Of formal principles ; and these, save one 3 , 
Will by thy reasoning be destroy'd. Beside, 
If rarity were of that dusk the cause, 
Which thou inquirest, either in some part 
That planet must throughout be void, nor fed 
With its own matter ; or, as bodies share 
Their fat and leanness, in like manner this 
Must in its volume change the leaves 4 . The first, 
If it were true, had through the sun's eclipse 
Been manifested, by transparency 

1 By bodies dense or rare.] Lombardi observes, that the opinion respecting 
the spots in the moon, which Dante represents himself as here yielding to the 
arguments of Beatrice, is professed by our author in the Convito, so that we 
may conclude that work to have been composed before this portion of the Di- 
vina Commedia. " The shadow in the moon is nothing else but the rarrtorof 
its body, which hinders the rays of the sun from terarinating and being reflect- 
ed, as in other parts of it." P. 70. 2 Numberless lights.] The fixed stars, 
which differ both in bulk and splendour. 3 Save one.] " Except that 
principle of rarity and denseness which thou hast assigned." By " formal 
principles," principj fm^mali, are meant "constituent or essential causes." 
Milton, in imitation of this passage, introduces the angel arguing with Adam 
respecting the causes of the spots on the moon. But, as a late French trans- 
lator of the Paradise, M. Artaud, well remarks, his reasoning is physical ; 
that of Dante partly metaphysical and partly theologic. 

Whence in her visage round those spots, unpurged 

Yapours not yet into her substance turn'd. Milton, P. L. b. v. 420. 

4 Change the leaves.] "Would, like leaves of parchment, be darker in 
some part than others. 



(366) THE VISION. 81—113. 

Of light, as through aught rare beside effused. 

But this is not. Therefore remains to see 

The other cause : and, if the other fall, 

Erroneous so must prove what seem'd to thee. 

If not from side to side this rarity 

Pass through, there needs must be a limit, whence 

Its contrary no further lets it pass. 

And hence the beam, that from without proceeds, 

Must be pour'd back ; as colour comes, through glass 

B-eflected, which behind it lead conceals. 

Now wilt thou say, that there of murkier hue, 

Than, in the other part, the ray is shown, 

By being thence refracted further back. 

From this perplexity will free thee soon 

Experience, if thereof thou trial make, 

The fountain whence your arts derive their streams. 

Three mirrors shalt thou take, and two remove 

From thee alike ; and more remote the third, 

Betwixt the former pair, shall meet thine eyes : 

Then turn'd toward them, cause behind thy back 

A light to stand, that on the three shall shine, 

And thus reflected come to thee from all. 

Though that, beheld most distant, do not stretch 

A space so ample, yet in brightness thou 

Wilt own it equaling the rest. But now, 

As under snow the ground, if the warm ray 

Smites it, remains dismantled of the hue 

And cold, that cover'd it before ; so thee, 

Dismantled in thy mind, I will inform 

With light so lively, that the tremulous beam 

Shall quiver where it falls. Within the heaven 1 , 

Where peace divine inhabits, circles round 

A body, in whose virtue lies the being 



1 Within the heaven.] According to our Poet's system, there are ten hea- 
vens. The heaven, " where peace divine inhabits,' ' is the empyrean ; the 
body within it, that " circles round," is the primum mobile ; " the following 
heaven," that of the fixed stars; and "the other orbs," the seven lower 
heavens, are Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the 
Moon. Thus Milton, P. L. b. iii. 481. 

They pass the planets seven, and pass the fix'd, 
And that crystalline sphere whose balance weighs 
The trepidation talk'd, and that first moved. 



114—148. PARADISE, Canto II. (367) 

Of all that it contains. The following heaven, 
That hath so many lights, this being divides, 
Through different essences, from it distinct, 
And yet contain'd within it. The other orbs 
Their separate distinctions variously 
Dispose, for their own seed and produce apt. 
Thus do these organs of the world proceed, 
As thou beholdest now, from step to step ; 
Their influences from above deriving, 
And thence transmitting downwards. Mark me well ; 
How through this passage to the truth I ford, 
The truth thou lovest ; that thou henceforth, alone, 
Mayst know to keep the shallows, safe, untold. 
" The virtue and motion of the sacred orbs, 
As mallet by the workman's hand, must needs 
By blessed movers ! be inspired. This heaven 2 , 
Made beauteous by so many luminaries, 
From the deep spirit 3 , that moves its circling sphere, 
Its image takes and impress as a seal : 
And as the soul, that dwells within your dust, 
Through members different, yet together form'd, 
In different powers resolves itself; e'en so 
The intellectual efficacy unfolds 
Its goodness multiplied throughout the stars ; 
On its own unity revolving still. 
Different virtue 4 compact different 
Makes with the precious body it enlivens, 
With which it knits, as life in you is knit. 
From its original nature full of joy, 
The virtue mingled 5 through the body shines, 
As joy through pupil of the living eye. 
From hence proceeds that which from light to light 
Seems different, and not from dense or rare. 
This is the formal cause, that generates, 
Proportion'd to its power, the dusk or clear." 

1 By blessed movers.] By angels. 2 This heaven.'] The heaven of 
fixed stars. * The deep spirit.] The moving angel. 4 Different virtue.] 
" There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another 
glory of the stars : for one star differeth from another star in glory." 1 Cor. 
xv. 41. The words are nearly Plato's, whom St. Paul seems to have had in 
view throughout this part of his argument. Mia fxlv [Swa/uus] rfkiov-fxia $k, 
<te\vviis' fxia ck, tu>v TravTwv aaTpcov, k. t. X. Epinomis, Ed. Bip. v. ix. p. 262. 

5 The virtue mingled.] Virg. JEn. lib. vi. 724. Principio caelum, &c. 



(368) THE VISION. 1—31. 

canto in. 



ARGUMENT. 

In the moon Dante meets with Piccarda, the sister of Forese, who tells him 
that this planet is allotted to those, who, after haying made profession of 
chastity and a religions life, had been compelled to violate their tows ; 
and she then points out to him the spirit of the Empress Costanza. 

That sun x , which erst with love my bosom warm'd, 
Had of fair truth unveil'd the sweet aspect, 
By proof of right, and of the false reproof ; 
And I, to own myself convinced and free 
Of doubt, as much as needed, raised my head 
Erect for speech. But soon a sight appear' d, 
Which, so intent to mark it, held me fix'd, 
That of confession I no longer thought. 

As through translucent and smooth glass, or wave 
Clear and unmoved, and flowing not so deep 
As that its bed is dark, the shape returns 
So faint of our impictured lineaments, 
That, on white forehead set, a pearl as strong 
Comes to the eye ; such saw I many a face, 
All stretch'd to speak ; from whence I straight conceived, 
Delusion 2 opposite to that, which raised, 
Between the man and fountain, amorous flame. 

Sudden, as I perceived them, deeming these 
Reflected semblances, to see of whom 
They were, I turn'd mine eyes, and nothing saw ; 
Then turn'd them back, directed on the light 
Of my sweet guide, who, smiling, shot forth beams 
From her celestial eyes. " Wonder not thou," 
She cried, " at this my smiling, when I see 
Thy childish judgment ; since not yet on truth 
It rests the foot, but, as it still is wont, 
Makes thee fall back in unsound vacancy. 
True substances are these, which thou behold'st, 
Hither through failure of their vow exiled. 
But speak thou with them ; listen, and believe, 
That the true light, which Alls them with desire, 

1 That sunA Beatrice. 2 Delusion.'] " An error the contrary to that 
of Narcissns ; "because he mistook a shadow for a substance ; I, a substance 
for a shadow." 



32—69. PARADISE, Canto III. (369) 

Permits not from its beams their feet to stray/' 

Straight to the shadow, which for converse seem'd 
Most earnest, I address'd me : and began 
As one by over-eagerness perplex'd: 
u O spirit, born for joy ! who in the rays 
Of life eternal, of that sweetness know'st 
The flavour, which, not tasted, passes far 
All apprehension ; me it well would please, 
If thou wouldst tell me of thy name, and this 
Your station here." Whence she with kindness prompt, 
And eyes glistering with smiles : " Our charity, 
To any wish by justice introduced, 
Bars not the door ; no more than she above, 
Who would have all her court be like herself. 
I was a virgin sister in the earth : 
And if thy mind observe me well, this form, 
With such addition graced of loveliness, 
Will not conceal me long ; but thou wilt know 
Piccarda 1 , in the tardiest sphere thus placed, 
Here 'mid these other blessed also blest. 
Our hearts, whose high affections burn alone 
With pleasure from the Holy Spirit conceived, 
Admitted to his order, dwell in joy. 
And this condition, which appears so low, 
Is for this cause assign' d us, that cur vows 
Were, in some part, neglected and made void." 

Whence I to her replied : " Something divine 
Beams in your countenances wonderous fair; 
From former knowledge quite transmuting you. 
Therefore to recollect was I so slow. 
But what thou say'st hath to my memory 
Given now such aid, that to retrace your forms 
Is easier. Yet inform me, ye, who here 
Are happy ; long ye for a higher place, 
More to behold, and more in love to dwell ? " 
She with those other spirits gently smiled ; 
Then answer'd with such gladness, that she seem'd 
With love's first flame to glow : " Brother ! our will 

1 Piccarda,.'] The sister of Corso Donati, and of Forese whom we haye seen 
in the Purgatory, Canto xxiii. Petrarch has been supposed to allude to this 
lady in his Triumph of Chastity, y. 160, &c. 

2 B 



J 



(370) THE VISION. 70—105. 

Is, in composure, settled by the power 

Of charity, who makes us will alone 

What we possess, and nought beyond desire : 

If we should wish to be exalted more, 

Then must our wishes jar with the high will 

Of him, who sets us here ; which in these orbs 

Thou wilt confess not possible, if here 

To be in charity must needs befal, 

And if her nature well thou contemplate. 

Rather it is inherent in this state 

Of blessedness, to keep ourselves within f 

The divine will, by which our wills with his 

Are one. So that as we, from step to step, 

Are placed throughout this kingdom, pleases all, 

Even as our King, who in us plants his will ; 

And in his will is our tranquillity : 

It is the mighty ocean, whither tends 

Whatever it creates and nature makes." 

Then saw I clearly how each spot in heaven 
Is Paradise, though with like gracious dew 
The supreme virtue shower not over all. 

But as it chances, if one sort of food 
Hath satiated, and of another still 
The appetite remains, that this is ask'd, 
And thanks for that return'd ; e'en so did I, 
In word and motion, bent from her to learn 
What web it was l , through which she had not drawn 
The shuttle to its point. She thus began : 
"Exalted worth and perfectness of. life 
The Lady 2 higher up inshrine in heaven, 
By whose pure laws upon your nether earth 
The robe and veil they wear ; to that intent, 
That e'en till death they may keep watch, or sleep, 
With their great bridegroom, who accepts each vow, 
Which to his gracious pleasure love conforms. 
I from the world, to follow her, when young 

1 What web it was.] " What tow of religious life it was that she had been 
hindered from, completing, had been compelled to break." * The Lady.] 
St. Clare, the foundress of the order called after her. She was bom of 
opulent and noble parents at Assisi, in 1193, and died in 1253. See Biogr. 
Univ. t. i. p. 598, Syo. Paris, 1813. 



106—122. PARADISE, Canto III. (371) 

Escaped ; and, in her vesture mantling me, 

Made promise of the way her sect enjoins. 

Thereafter men, for ill than good more apt, 

Forth snatch'd me from the pleasant cloister's pale. 

God knows ! how, after that, my life was framed. 

This other splendid shape, which thou behold'st 

At my right side, burning with all the light 

Of this our orb, what of myself I tell 

May to herself apply. From her, like me 

A sister, with like violence were torn 

The saintly folds, that shaded her fair brows. 

E'en when she to the world again was brought 

In spite of her own will and better wont, 

Yet not for that the bosom's inward veil 

Did she renounce. This is the luminary 

Of mighty Constance 2 , who from that loud blast, 

Which blew the second 3 over Suabia's realm, 

1 God knoics.] Rodolfo da Tossignano, Hist. Seraph. Relig. P. i. p. 138, 
as cited by Lombardi, relates the following legend of Piccarda: — "Her 
brother Corso, inflamed with rage against his virgin sister, having joined 
with him Farinata, an infamous assassin, and twelve other abandoned ruf- 
fians, entered the monastery by a ladder, and carried away his sister forcibly 
to his own house ; and then tearing off her religious habit, compelled her to 
go in a secular garment to her nuptials. Before the spouse of Christ came 
together with her new husband, she knelt down before a crucifix and recom- 
mended her virginity to Christ. Soon after her whole body was smitten 
with leprosy, so as to strike grief and horror into the beholders ; and thus in 
a few days, through the divine disposal, she passed with a palm of virginity 
to the Lord." Perhaps, adds the worthy Franciscan, our Poet not being 
able to certify himself entirely of this occurrence, has chosen to pass it over 
discreetly, by making Piccarda say — 

God knows how, after that, my life was framed. 

2 Constance.] Daughter of Ruggieri, king of Sicily, who being taken by 
force out of a monastery where she had professed, was married to the Em- 
peror Henri VI. and by him was mother to Frederick II. She was fifty years 
old or more at the time, and "because it was not credited that she could 
have a child at that age, she was delivered in a pavilion, and it was given 
out that any lady, who pleased, was at liberty to see her. Many came, and 
saw her ; and the suspicion ceased." Ricordano Malaspina, in Muratori Rer. 
It. Script, t. viii. p. 939 ; and G. Villani, in the same words, Hist. Kb. v. c. 
xvi. The French translator above mentioned speaks of her having poisoned 
her husband. The death of Henry YI. is recorded in the Chronicon Siciliae, 
by an anonymous writer, (Muratori, t. x.) but not a word of his having been 
poisoned by Constance ; and Ricordano Malaspina even mentions her decease 
as happening before that of her husband, Henry V., for so this author, with 
some others, terms him. 3 The second.'] Henry VI. son of Frederick I. 
was the second emperor of the house of Suabia ; and his son Frederick II. 
"the third and last." 

2 b 2 



(372) THE VISION. 123—133. 

That power produced, which was the third and last.*' 
She ceased from further talk, and then be^an 

'•Ave Maria" singing ; and with that song 

Vanish'd, as heavy substance through deep wave. 
Mine eye, that, far as it was capable, 

Pursued her, when in dimness she was lost, 

Turn'd to the mark where greater want impell'd, 

And bent on Beatrice all its gaze. 

But she, as lightning, beam'd upon my looks ; 

So that the sight sustain'd it not at first. 

Whence I to question her became less prompt. 



CANTO IV. 



ARGUMENT. 

vVhile they still continue in the moon, Beatrice removes certain doubts 
which Dante had conceived respecting the place assigned to the blessed, 
and respecting the will absolute or conditional. He inquires whether it is 
possible to make satisfaction for a tow broken. 

Between two kinds of food ! , both equally 
Eemote and tempting, first a man might die 
Of hunger, ere he one could freely chuse. 
E'en so would stand a lamb between the maw 
Of two fierce wolves, in dread of both alike : 
E'en so between two deer 2 a dog would stand. 
^Therefore, if I was silent, fault nor praise 
I to myself impute ; by equal doubts 
Held in suspense ; since of necessity - 
It happen'd. Silent was I, yet desire 
TTas painted in my looks ; and thus I spake 
My wish more earnestly than language could. 
As Daniel 3 , when the haughty king he freed 

1 Beticeen tico kinds of food.'] " Si aliqua dico sunt penitus sequalia, non 
magis movetur homo ad unuru quam ad aliud ; sicut fanieiicus. si habet cibuin 
aequaliter appetibilem in diversis partibus. et secundum aequalem distantiam, 
non magis movetur ad unum quam ad alterum." Thomas Aquinas, Summ. 
Theolog. i m . a ii dj f Partis. Questio. xiii. Art. vi. 
* Beticeen two dee?'.] Tigris ut. auditis, diversa valle duorum. 

Extimulata fame, mugitibus armentorum. 
Xescit utro potius ruat, et mere ardet utroque. 

Ovid, Metam. lib. v. 166. 
3 Daniel.] See Daniel, ii. Beatrice did for Dante what Daniel did for 



14—38. PARADISE, Canto IV. (373) 

From ire, that spurr'd him on to deeds unjust 
And violent ; so did Beatrice then. 

" Well I discern," she thus her words address'd, 
" How thou art drawn by each of these desires * ; 
So that thy anxious thought is in itself 
Bound up and stifled, nor breathes freely forth. 
Thou arguest : if the good intent remain ; 
What reason that another's violence 
Should stint the measure of my fair desert ? 

" Cause too thou find'st for doubt, in that it seems, 
That spirits to the stars, as Plato 2 deem'd, 
Return. These are the questions which thy will 
Urge equally ; and therefore I, the first, 
Of that 3 will treat which hath the more of gall 4 . 
Of seraphim 5 he who is most enskied, 
Moses and Samuel, and either John, 
Chuse which thou wilt, nor even Mary's self, 
Have not in any other heaven their seats, 
Than have those spirits which so late thou saw'st ; 
Nor more or fewer years exist ; but all 
Make the first circle 6 beauteous, diversly 
Partaking of sweet life, as more or less 
Afflation of eternal bliss pervades them. 
Here were they shown thee, not that fate assigns 
This for their sphere, but for a sign to thee 

Nebuchadnezzar, when he freed the king from the uncertainty respecting 
his dream, which had enraged him against the Chaldeans. Lombardi con- 
jectures that " Fe si Beatrice" should be read, instead of " Fessi Beatrice;'* 
and his conjecture has since been confirmed by the Monte Casino MS. 

1 By each of these desires.'] His desire to have each of the doubts, which 
Beatrice mentions, resolved. 2 Plato. .1 Svo-Triaas <Se, k. t. \. Plato, 

Timaeus, v. ix. p. 326. Edit. Bip. " The Creator, when he had framed the 
universe, distributed to the stars an equal number of souls, appointing to 
each soul its several star." 3 Of that. ~\ Plato's opinion. 4 Which 

hath the more of gall."] Which is tne more dangerous. 5 Of seraphim.] 
M He amongst the seraphim who is most nearly united with God, Moses, 
Samuel, and both the Johns, the Baptist and the Evangelist, dwell not in 
any other heaven than do those spirits whom thou hast just beheld ; nor 
does even the blessed Virgin herself dwell in any other : nor is their exist- 
ence either longer or shorter than that of these spirits." She first resolves 
his doubt whether souls do not return to their own stars, as he had read in 
the Timaeus of Plato. Angels, then, and beatified spirits, she declares, 
dwell all and eternally together, only partaking more or less of the divine 
glory, in the empyrean ; although, in condescension to human understand- 
ing, they appear to have different spheres allotted to them. 

6 The first circle.] The empyrean. 



(374) THE VISION. 39—64. 

Of that celestial furthest from the height. 
Thus needs, that ye may apprehend, we speak : 
Since from things sensible alone ye learn 
That, which, digested rightly, after turns 
To intellectual. For no other cause 
The Scripture, condescending graciously 
To your perception, hands and feet l to God 
Attributes, nor so means : and holy church 
Doth represent with human countenance 
Gabriel, and Michael, and him who made 
Tobias whole 2 . Unlike what here thou seest, 
The judgment of Timgeus 3 , who affirms 
Each soul restored to its particular star ; 
Believing it to have been taken thence, 
When nature gave it to inform her mold : 
Yet to appearance his intention is 
Not what his words declare : and so to shun 
Derision, haply thus he hath disguised 
His true opinion 4 . If his meaning be, 
That to the influencing of these orbs revert 
The honour and the blame in human acts, 
Perchance he doth not wholly miss the truth. 
This principle, not understood aright, 
Erewhile perverted well nigh all the world ; 
So that it fell to fabled names of Jove, 
And Mercury, and Mars. That other doubt, 



Hands and feet.] Thus Milton : — 

What surmounts the reach 



Of human sense, I shall delineate so, 
By likening spiritual to corporeal forms, 
As shall express them "best. P. L.b. v. 575. 

These passages, rightly considered, may tend to remoye the scruples of some, 
who are offended by any attempts at representing the Deity in pictures. 

2 Him who made 

Tobias whole.] 

Raphael, the sociable spirit, that deign'd 

To travel with Tobias, and secured 

His marriage with the seven times wedded maid. Ibid. 223. 

3 Timcens.] In the Convito, p. 92, our author again refers to the Timaeus 
of Plato, on the subject of the mundane system; but it is in order to give 
the preference to the opinion respecting it 'held by Aristotle. 4 His true 
opinion.] In like manner, our learned Still ingfleet has professed himself 
" somewhat inclinable to think that Plato knew more of the lapse of mankind 
than he would openly discover, and for that end disguised it after his usual 
manner in that hypothesis of pre-existence." Origines Sacrce, b. iii. c. iii. § 15. 



65—97. PARADISE, Canto IV. (375) 

Which moves thee, is less harmful ; for it brings 
No peril of removing thee from me. 

" That, to the eye of man 1 , our justice seems 
Unjust, is argument for faith, and not 
For heretic declension. But, to the end 
This truth 2 may stand more clearly in your view, 
I will content thee even to thy wish. 

" If violence be, when that which suffers, nought 
Consents to that which forceth, not for this 
These spirits stood exculpate. For the will, 
That wills not, still survives unquench'd, and doth, 
As nature doth in fire, though violence 
Wrest it a thousand times ; for, if it yield 
Or more or less, so far it follows force. 
And thus did these, when they had power to seek 
The hallow' d place again. In them, had will 
Been perfect, such as once upon the bars 
Held Laurence 3 firm, or wrought in Scasvola 4 
To his own hand remorseless ; to the path, 
Whence they were drawn, their steps had hasten'd back, 
When liberty return'd : but in too few, 
Resolve, so stedfast, dwells. And by these words, 
If duly weigh'd, that argument is void, 
Which oft might have perplex'd thee still. But now 
Another question thwarts thee, which, to solve, 
Might try thy patience without better aid. 
I have, no doubt, instill' d into thy mind, 
That blessed spirit may not lie ; since near 
The source of primal truth it dwells for aye : 
And thou mightst after of Piccarda learn 
That Constance held affection to the veil ; 
So that she seems to contradict me here. 
Not seldom, brother, it hath chanced for men 

1 That, to the eye of man.'] " That the ways of divine justice are often 
inscrutable to man, ought rather to be a motive to faith than an inducement 
to heresy." Such appears to me the most satisfactory explanation of the 
passage. 2 This truth.] That it is no impeachment of God's justice, if 
merit be lessened through compulsion of others, without any failure of good 
intention on the part of the meritorious. After all, Beatrice ends by admit- 
ting that there was a defect in the will, which hindered Constance and the 
others from seizing the first opportunity, that offered itself to them, of re- 
turning to the monastic life. 3 Laurence.] Who suffered martyrdom in 
the third century. * Sccevola.] See Liv. Hist. D. 1. lib. ii. 12. 



(376) THE VISION. 98-130. 

To do what they had gladly left undone : 
Yet, to shun peril, they have done amiss : 
E'en as Alcmaeon 1 , at his father's 2 suit 
Slew his own mother 3 : so made pitiless. 
Not to lose pity. On this point bethink thee. 
That force and will are blended in such wise 
As not to make the offence excusable. 
Absolute will agrees not to the wrong ; 
But inasmuch as there is fear of woe 
From non-compliance, it agrees. Of will 4 
Thus absolute, Piccarda spake, and I 
Of the other ; so that both have truly said." 

Such was the flow of that pure rill, that well'd 
From forth the fountain of all truth : and such 
The rest, that to my wandering thoughts I found. 

" thou, of primal love the prime delight, 
Goddess ! " I straight replied, "'whose lively words 
Still shed new heat and vigour through my soul ; 
Affection fails me to requite thy grace 
With equal sum of gratitude : be his 
To recompense, who sees and can reward thee. 
TVell I discern, that by that truth 5 alone 
Enlighten'd, beyond which no truth may roam, 
Our mind can satisfy her thirst to know : 
Therein she resteth, e'en as in his lair 
The wild beast, soon as she hath reach'd that bound. 
And she hath power to reach it ; else desire 
Were given to no end. And thence doth doubt 
Spring, like a shoot, around the stock of truth ; 
And it is nature which, from height to height, 
On to the summit prompts us. This invites, 
This doth assure me, Lady ! reverently 
To ask thee of another truth, that yet 

1 4 Alcmceon.] Ovid, Met. lib. ix. f. 10. 

Ultusqne parente parentem 

Natus. erit facto plus et sceleratus eodenu 

2 His father's.] Aruphiaraus. 3 His own .] Eriphyle. 4 Of 
will.] " What riccarda asserts of Constance, that she retained her affection 
to the monastic life, is said absolutely and without relation to circumstances ; 
and that, -which I affirm, is spoken of the will conditionally and respectively: 
so that our apparent difference is without any disagreement. " b That 
truth.] The light of divine truth. 



131—138. PARADISE, Canto IV. (377) 

Is dark to me. I fain would know, if man 

By other works well done may so supply 

The failure of his vows, that in your scale 

They lack not weight." I spake ; and on me straight 

Beatrice look'd, with eyes that shot forth sparks 

Of love celestial, in such copious stream, 

That, virtue sinking in me overpower'd, 

I turn'd ; and downward bent, confused, my sight. 



CANTO V. 



ARGUMENT. 

The question proposed in the last Canto is answered. Dante ascends with 
Beatrice to the planet Mercury, which is the second heaven ; and here he 
finds a multitude of spirits, one of whom offers to satisfy him of any thing 
he may desire to know from them. 

" If beyond earthly wont ! , the flame of love 
Illume me, so that I o'ercome thy power 
Of vision, marvel not : but learn the cause 
In that perfection of the sight, which, soon 
As apprehending, hasteneth on to reach 
The good it apprehends. I well discern, 
How in thine intellect already shines 
The light eternal, which to view alone 
Ne'er fails to kindle love ; and if aught else 
Your love seduces, 'tis but that it shows 
Some ill-mark'd vestige of that primal beam. 

" This wouldst thou know : if failure of the vow 
By other service may be so supplied, 
As from self-question to assure the soul." 

Thus she her words, not heedless of my wish, 
Began ; and thus, as one who breaks not off 
Discourse, continued in her saintly strain. 
" Supreme of gifts 2 , which God, creating, gave 

1 If beyond earthly wont.] Dante having heen unable to sustain the 
splendour of Beatrice, as we have seen at the end of the last Canto, she tells 
him to attribute her increase of brightness to the place in which they were. 

2 Supreme of gifts.] So in the De Monarchic, lib. i. p. 107 and 108. 
" Si ergo judicium moveat, &c." " If then the judgment altogether move 
the appetite, and is in no wise prevented by it, it is free. But if the judgment 
be moved by the appetite in any way preventing it, it cannot be free : be- 



(375) THE VISION. 19—47. 

Of his free bounty, sign most evident 

0: _ : : ioess. and in his account most prized. 

TTas liberty of will : the boon, wherewith 

All intellectual creatures, and them sole. 

He hath endow* d. Hence now thou mavst infer 

Of what high worth the vow. which so is framed. 

That when man o tiers. G-c i well-pleased accepts : 

For in the compact between L-r-od and him. 

J. his treasure, sucn as I cieserioe it to tnee. 

He makes the victim : and of his own act. 

"vThar compensation therefore may he rind? 

If that, whereof thou hast oblation made. 

By using well thou think'st to consecrate. 

Thou wouldst c:' theft 1 lo charitable deed. 

Thus I resolve thee of the greater point. 

"But forasmuch as holy church, herein 
Dispensing, seems to contradict the truth 
I have discover* :1 t: thee, yet behoves 
Thou rest a little longer at the hoard. 
Ere the crude aliment which thou hast ta" en. 
Digested fitly, to nutrition turn. 
Open thy mind to what I now unfold ; 
And give it inward keeping. Knowledge comes 
Of learning w-11 retain'd. unfruitful else. 

"This sacrifice, in essence, of two things 1 
Consist eth ; one is that, whereof his made : 
The covenant,, the other. For the last, 
It ne'er is cancel'd. if not kept : and hence 
I spake, erewhile. so strictly of its force. 

cause it acts not of itself, hot is le i c sptire by another. And hence it is that 
brutes cannot hare free judgment, because then; judgments are always pre- 
vented by appetite. And hence it may also appear manifest, that intellectual 
substances, whose wills are immutable, and likewise souls separated from 
the body, and departing from it well and holily, lose not the liberty of choice 
on account of the immutability of the will, but retain it most perfectly and 
powerfully. This being discerned, it is again plain, that this liberty, or 
principle of all our liberty, is the greatest good conferred on human nature 
by God ; because by this very thing we are here made happy, as men ; by 
this we are elsewhere nappy, as divine be::: gsj : Thou icouldst of theft?] 
"licet fur de furto, &c.' ? Ik jfynarchfd, lib. ii p. 123. •■Although a 
thief should out of that which be has stolen give help to a poor man, yet is 
that not to be called amisgiving." a Tico things.] The one, the substance 
of the tow, as of a single-life for instance, or of keeping fast ; the other, the 
compact, or form of it. 



48—85, PARADISE, Canto V. (379) 

For this it was enjoin'd the Israelites 1 , 

Though leave were given them, as thou know'st, to change 

The offering, still to offer. The other part, 

The matter and the substance of the vow, 

May well be such, as that, without offence, 

It may for other substance be exchanged. 

But, at his own discretion, none may shift 

The burden on his shoulders ; unreleased 

By either key 2 , the yellow and the white. 

Nor deem of any change, as less than vain, 

If the last bond 3 be not within the new 

Included, as the quatre in the six. 

No satisfaction therefore can be paid 

For what so precious in the balance weighs, 

That all in counterpoise must kick the beam. 

Take then no vow at random : ta'en, with faith 

Preserve it ; yet not bent, as Jephthah once, 

Blindly to execute a rash resolve, 

Whom better it had suited to exclaim, 

' I have done ill,' than to redeem his pledge 

By doing worse : or, not unlike to him 

In folly, that great leader of the Greeks ; 

Whence, on the altar, Iphigenia mourn'd 

Her virgin beauty, and hath since made mourn 

Both wise and simple, even all, who hear 

Of so fell sacrifice. Be ye more staid, 

O Christians ! not, like feather, by each wind 

Removeable ; nor think to cleanse yourselves 

In every water. Either testament, 

The old and new, is yours : and for your guide, 

The shepherd of the church. Let this suffice 

To save you. When by evil lust enticed, 

Remember ye be men, not senseless beasts ; 

Nor let the Jew, who dwelleth in your streets, 

Hold you in mockery. Be not, as the lamb, 

That, fickle wanton, leaves its mother's milk, 

To dally with itself in idle play." 

Such were the words that Beatrice spake : 

1 It was enjoirCd the Israelites.'] See Lev. c. xii. and xxvii. 2 Either 
key.] Purgatory, Canto ix. 108. 3 If the last bond.] If the thing sub- 
stituted be not far more precious than that which is released. 



(380) THE VISION. 86—119. 

These ended, to that region l , where the world 
Is liveliest, full of fond desire she turn'd. 

Though mainly prompt new question to propose, 
Her silence and changed look did keep me dumb. 
And as the arrow, ere the cord is still, 
Leapeth unto its mark ; so on we sped 
Into the second realm. There I beheld 
The dame, so joyous, enter, that the orb 
Grew brighter at her smiles ; and, if the star 
Were moved to gladness, what then was my cheer, 
Whom nature hath made apt for every change ! 

As in a quiet and clear lake the fish, 
If aught approach them from without, do draw 
Towards it, deeming it their food ; so drew 
Full more than thousand splendours towards us ; 
And in each one was heard : " Lo ! one arrived 
To multiply our loves ! " and as each came, 
The shadow, streaming forth effulgence new. 
Witness' d augmented joy. Here, Reader ! think, 
If thou didst miss the sequel of my tale, 
To know the rest how sorely thou wouldst crave ; 
And thou shalt see what vehement desire 
Possess* d me, soon as these had met my view, 
To know their state. " O born in happy hour ! 
Thou, to whom grace vouchsafes, or e'er thy close 
Of fleshly warfare, to behold the thrones 
Of that eternal triumph ; know, to us 
The light communicated, which through heaven 
Expatiates without bound. Therefore, if aught 
Thou of our beams wouldst borrow for thine aid, 
Spare not ; and, of our radiance, take thy fill." 

Thus of those piteous spirits one bespake me ; 
And Beatrice next : " Say on ; and trust 
As unto gods." — " How in the light supreme 

■ » 

1 That region.'] As some explain it, the east : according to others, the 
equinoctial line. Lombardi supposes it to mean that she looked upwards. 
Monti, in his Proposta (Vol. 3. p te 2. p. lxxix. Milan, 1826), has adduced a 
passage from our author's Convito, which fixes the sense. Dico ancora, che 
quanto il Cielo e piu presso al cerchio equatore, tanto e piu mobile per com- 
parazione alii suoi ; perocche ha piu movimento, e piu attualita, e piu vita, 
e piu forma, e piu. tocca di quello, che e sopra se, e per conseguente piu. 
virtuoso, p. 48. 



120—134. PARADISE, Canto V. (381) 

Thou harbour'st, and from thence the virtue bring'st, 

That, sparkling in thine eyes, denotes thy joy, 

I mark ; but, who thou art, am still to seek ; 

Or wherefore, worthy spirit ! for thy lot 

This sphere 1 assign'd, that oft from mortal ken 

Is veil'd by other's beams." I said ; and turn'd 

Toward the lustre, that with greeting kind 

Ere while had hail'd me. Forthwith, brighter far 

Than erst, it wax'd : and, as himself the sun 

Hides through excess of light, when his warm gaze 2 

Hath on the mantle of thick vapours prey'd ; 

Within its proper ray the saintly shape 

Was, through increase of gladness, thus conceal' d ; 

And, shrouded so in splendour, answer'd me, 

E'en as the tenour of my song declares. 



CANTO VI. 



ARGUMENT. 

The spirit, who had offered to satisfy the inquiries of Dante, declares him- 
self to be the Emperor Justinian ; and after speaking of his own actions, 
recounts the victories, before him, obtained under the Roman Eagle. He 
then informs our Poet that the soul of Romeo the pilgrim is in the same 
star. 

"After that Constantine the eagle turn'd 3 
Against the motions of the heaven, that roll'd 
Consenting with its course, when he of yore, 
Lavinia's spouse, was leader of the flight ; 
A hundred years twice told and more 4 , his seat 
At Europe's extreme point 5 , the bird of Jove 

1 This sphered] The planet Mercury, which, being nearest to the sun, is 
oftenest hidden by that luminary. 2 When his warm gaze.] When the 
sun has dried up the yapours, that shaded his brightness. 

3 After that Constantine the eagle turn'd.] Constantine, in transferring 
the seat of empire from Rome to Byzantium, carried the eagle, the Imperial 
ensign, from the west to the east. iEneas, on the contrary, had, with bet- 
ter augury, moved along with the sun's course, when he passed from Troy 
to Italy. 4 A hundred years twice told and more.] The Emperor Con- 

stantine entered Byzantium in 324 ; and Justinian began his reign in 527. 
5 At Europe's extreme point.] Constantinople being situated at the ex- 
treme of Europe, and on the borders of Asia, near those mountains in the 
neighbourhood of Troy, from whence the first founders of Rome had 
emigrated. 



(382) I THE VISION. 7—35. 

Held, near the mountains, whence he issued first ; 

There under shadow of his sacred plumes 

Swaying the world, till through successive hands 

To mine he came devolved. Caesar I was ; 

And am Justinian ; destined by the will 

Of that prime love, whose influence I feel, 

From vain excess to clear the incumber'd laws 1 . 

Or e'er that work engaged me, I did hold 

In Christ one nature only 2 ; with such faith 

Contented. But the blessed Agapete 3 , 

Who was chief shepherd, he with warning voice 

To the true faith recall* d me. I believed 

His words : and what he taught, now plainly see, 

As thou in every contradiction seest 

The true and false opposed. Soon as my feet 

Were to the church reclaim'd, to my great task, 

By inspiration of God's grace impell'd, 

I gave me wholly ; and consign'd mine arms 

To Belisarius, with whom heaven's right hand 

Was link'd in such conj ointment, 'twas a sign 

That I should rest. To thy first question thus 

I shape mine answer, which were ended here, 

But that its tendency doth prompt perforce 

To some addition ; that thou well mayst mark, 

What reason on each side they have to plead, 

By whom that holiest banner is withstood, 

Both who pretend its power 4 and who oppose 5 . 

" Beginning from that hour, when Pallas died 6 
To give it rule, behold the valorous deeds 

1 To clear the incumber' d laws.] The code of laws was abridged and re- 
formed by Justinian. 

Giustiniano son io, disse il primajo, 

Che '1 troppo e '1 van secai for delle leggi, 
Ora soggette all' amie e al denajo. 

Frezzi, II Quadriregio, lib. iv. cap. 13. 

2 In Christ one nature only."] Justinian is said to have been a follower 
of the heretical opinions held by Eutyches, " who taught that in Christ there 
was but one nature, viz. that of the incarnate word." Maclaine's Mosheim, 
torn. ii. cent. v. p. ii. cap. v. $ 13. 3 Agapete.] " Agapetus, Bishop of 
Rome, whose Scheda Regia, addressed to the Emperor Justinian, procured 
him a place among the wisest and most judicious writers of this century." 
Ibid. cent. vi. p. ii. cap. ii. § 8. Compare Fazio degli Uberti, Dittamondo, 
1. ii. cap. xvi 4 Who pretend its power. .] The Ghibellines. b And 
who oppose.] The Guelphs. 6 Pallas died.] See Virgil, JEn. lib. x. 



36—65. PARADISE, Canto VI. (383) 

Have made it worthy reverence. Not unknown 1 
To thee, how for three hundred years and more 
It dwelt in Alba, up to those fell lists 
Where, for its sake, were met the rival three 2 ; 
Nor aught unknown to thee, which it achieved 
Down 3 from the Sabines' wrong to Lucrece' woe ; 
With its seven kings conquering the nations round ; 
Nor all it wrought, by Roman worthies borne 
'Gainst Brennus and the Epirot prince 4 , and hosts 
Of single chiefs, or states in league combined 
Of social warfare : hence, Torquatus stern, 
And Quintius 5 named of his neglected locks, 
The Decii, and the Fabii hence acquired 
Their fame, which I with duteous zeal embalm 6 . 
. By it the pride of Arab hordes/ 7 was quell' d, 
When they, led on by Hannibal, o'erpass'd 
The Alpine rocks, whence glide thy currents, Po ! 
Beneath its guidance, in their prime of days 
Scipio and Po ropey triumph'd ; and that hill 8 
Under whose summit 9 thou didst see the light, 



1 Not unknoicn.] In the second book of his treatise De Monarchia, where 
Dante endeavours to prove that the Roman people had a right to govern the 
world, he refers to their conquests and successes in nearly the same order as 
in this passage. " The Roman," he affirms, " might truly say, as the Apos- 
tle did to Timothy, There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness ; laid 
up, that is, in the eternal providence of God." p. 131. And again : " Now 
it is manifest, that by duel (per duellum) the Roman people acquired the 
Empire ; therefore they acquired it by right, to prove which is the main 
purpose of the present book." p. 132. ■ The rival three.] The Horatii 
and Curiatii. 3 Down.] " From the rape of the Sabine women to the 
violation of Lucretia." 4 The Epirot prince.] King Pyrrhus. 

b Quintius.] Quintius Cincinnatus. 

E Cincinnato dalT inculta chioma. Petrarca. 

Compare De Monarchia, lib. ii. p. 121, &c. " Itaque, inquit, et majores 
nostri, &c." 6 Embalm.] The word in the original is " mirro," which 
some think is put for "miro," "I behold or regard;" and others under- 
stand, as I have rendered it. 7 Arab hordes.] The Arabians seem to be 
put for the barbarians in general. Lombardi's comment is, that as the 
Arabs are an Asiatic people, and it is not recorded that Hannibal had any 
other troops except his own countrymen the Carthaginians, who were Afri- 
cans, we must understand that Dante denominates that people, Arabs, on 
account of their origin. " Ab Ifrico Arabiae Felicis rege, qui omnium primus 
hanc terrain (Africam) incoluisse fertur," &c. Leo Africanus, Africce 
Description lib. i. cap. i. 8 That hill.] The city of Fesulae, whicn was 
sacked by the Romans after the defeat of Catiline. ° Under whose sum- 
mit.] " At the foot of which is situated Florence, thy birth-place." 



(384) THE VISION. 56—82. 

Rued its stern bearing. After, near the hour 1 , 

When heaven was minded that o'er all the world 

His own deep cairn should brood, to Caesar's hand 

Did Rome consign it : and what then it wrought 2 

From Var unto the Rhine, saw Isere's flood, 

Saw Loire and Seine, and every vale, that tills 

The torrent Rhone. "What after that it wrought, 

^Vhen from Ravenna it came forth, and leap ? d 

The Rubicon, was of so bold a flight, 

That tongue nor pen may follow it. Towards Spain 

It wheel' d its bands, then toward Dyrrachium smote, 

And on Pharsalia. with so fierce a plunge, 

E'en the warm Nile was conscious to the pang ; 

Its native shores Antandros, and the streams 

Of Simois revisited, and there 

"Where Hector lies : then ill for Ptolemv 

His pennons shook again ; lightening thence fell 

On Juba : and the next, upon your west, 

At sound of the Pompeian trump, ret urn* d. 

(i TThat following, and in its next bearer's gripe 3 , 
It wrought, is now by Cassius and Brutus 
Bark'd of 4 in hell ; and by Perugia's sons, 
And Modena's, was mourn'd. Hence weepeth still 
Sad Cleopatra, who, pursued by it, 
Took from the adder black and sudden death. 
With him it ran e'en to the Red Sea coast : 
With him composed the world to such a peace, 

1 Near the hour.] Near the time of our Saviour's birth. '* The immeasur- 
able goodness of the Deity being w illin g again to conform to itself the human 
creature, which by transgression of the first man had from God departed, 
and fallen from his likeness, it was determined in that most high and closest 
consistory of the Godhead, the Trinity, that the Son of God should descend 
upon earth, to make this agreement. And because it was behoveful. that at 
his coming, the world, not" only the heaven but the earth, should be in the 
best possible disposition ; and the best disposition of the earth, is. when it is 
a monarchy, that is. all under one prince, as hath been said above : there- 
fore through the divine forecast was ordained that people and that city for 
the accomplishment, namely, the glorious Home." Convito. p. 13$. The 
same argument is repeated at the conclusion of the first book of our author's 
treatise •• De Monarchia." 2 What there it wrought.'] In the following 
fifteen lines the Poet has comprised the exploits of Julius Caesar, for which, 
and for the allusions in the greater part of this speech of Justinian's. I must 
refer my reader to the history of B-oine. s In its next bearer's gripe. - ] 

"With Augustus Caesar. 

4 Bark'd of.] roiavd* v\clkte.Z. S^jhocJes. Elect ra. 299. 



83—107. PARADISE, Canto VI. (385) 

That of his temple Janus barr'd the door. 

"But all the mighty standard yet had wrought, 
And was appointed to perform thereafter, 
Throughout the mortal kingdom which it sway'd, 
Falls in appearance dwindled and obscured, 
If one with steady eye and perfect thought 
On the third Caesar x look ; for to his hands, 
The living Justice, in whose breath I move, 
Committed glory, e'en into his hands, 
To execute the vengeance of its wrath. 

" Hear now, and wonder at, what next I tell. 
After with Titus it was sent to wreak 
Vengeance for vengeance 2 of the ancient sin. 
And, when the Lombard tooth, with fang impure, 
Did gore the bosom of the holy church, 
Under its wings, victorious Charlemain 3 
Sped to her rescue. Judge then for thyself 
Of those, whom I erewhile accused to thee, 
What they are, and how grievous their offending, 
Who are the cause of all your ills. The one 4 
Against the universal ensign rears 
The yellow lilies 5 ; and with partial aim, 
That, to himself, the other 6 arrogates : 
So that 'tis hard to see who most offends. 
Be yours, ye Ghibellines 7 , to veil your hearts 



1 The third Ccesar.] The eagle in the hand of Tiberius, the third of the 
Caesars, outdid all its achievements, both past and future, by becoming the 
instrument of that mighty and mysterious act of satisfaction made to the 
divine justice in the crucifixion of our Lord. This is Lombardi's explan- 
ation ; and he deserves much credit for being right, where all the other com- 
mentators, as far as I know, are wrong. See note to Purg. Canto xxxii. 50. 
2 Vengeance for vengeance.] This will be afterwards explained by the 
Poet himself. See next Canto, v. 47, and note. 3 Charlemain, .] Dante 
could not be ignorant that the reign of Justinian was long prior to that of 
Charlemain ; but the spirit of the former emperor is represented, both in 
this instance and in what follows, as conscious of the events that had taken 
place after his own time. 4 The one.'] The Guelph party. 5 The yel- 
low lilies.] The French ensign. 6 The other.] The Ghibelline party. 

7 Ye Ghibellines.] "Authors differ much as to the beginning of these 
factions, and the origin of the names by which they were distinguished. 
Some say that they began in Italy as early as the time of the Emperor 
Frederick I. in his well-known disputes with Pope Alexander III. about the 
year 1160. Others make them more ancient, dating them from the reign of 
the Emperor Henry IV. who died in 1125. But the most common opinion 
is, that they arose m the contests between the Emperor Frederick II. and 

2 c 



(386) THE VISION. 108—119. 

Beneath another standard : ill is this 

Follow'd of him, who severs it and justice : 

And let not with his Guelphs the new-crown'd Charles 1 

Assail it ; but those talons hold in dread, 

Which from a lion of more lofty port 

Have rent the casing. Many a time ere now 

The sons have for the sire's transgression wail'd : 

Nor let him trust the fond belief, that heaven 

Will truck its armour for his lilied shield. 

" This little star is furnish'd with good spirits, 
Whose mortal lives ^were busied to that end, 
That honour and renown might wait on them : 

Pope Gregory IX., and that this Emperor, wishing to ascertain who were his 
own adherents, and who those of the Pope, caused the former to be marked by 
the appellation of Ghibellines, and the latter by that of Guelphs. It is more 
probable, however, that the factions were at this time either renewed, or dif- 
fused more widely, and that their origin was of an eariier date, since it is cer- 
tain that G. Villani,b. v. c. xxxvii., Bicordano Malaspina, c. civ., and Pietro 
Buoninsegni, b. i., of their histories of Florence, are agreed, that even from 
1215, that is long before Frederick had succeeded to the Empire, and Gregory 
to the Pontificate, by the death of Buondelmonte Biiondelmonti, one of the 
chief gentlemen in Florence, (see Par. Canto xvi. v. 139,) the factions of the 
Guelfi and Ghibellini were introduced into that city." A. G. Artegiani, 
Annotations on the Quadriregio, p. 180. " The same variety of opinion 
prevails with regard to the origin of the names. Some deduce them from 
two brothers, who were Germans, the one called Guelph and the other Gibel, 
who being the partizans of two powerful families in Pistoia, the Panciatichi, 
and the Cancellieri, then at enmity with each other, were the first occasion 
of these titles having been given to the discordant factions. Others, with 
more probability, derive them from Guelph or Guelfone, Duke of Bavaria, 
and Gibello, a castle where his antagonist, the Emperor Conrad the Third, 
was born ; in consequence of a battle between Guelph and Henry the son of 
Conrad, which was fought (according to Mini, in his Defence of Florence, p. 
48) A. D. 1138. Others assign to them an origin yet more ancient ; assert- 
ing, that at the election of Frederick I. to the Empire, the Electors concurred 
in chusing him, in order to extinguish the inveterate discords between the 
Guelphs and Ghibellines, that prince being descended by the paternal line 
from the Ghibellines, and by the maternal from the Guelphs. Bartolo, how- 
ever, in his tractate de Guelphis et Gibellinis, gives an intrinsic meaning to 
these names from certain passages in Scripture. * Sicut Gibellus interpreta 
tur locus fortitudinis, ita Gibellini appellantur confidentes in fortitudine 
militvm et armorum, et sicut Guelpha interpretatur os loquens, ita Guelphi 
interpretantur confidentes in orationibus et in divinis.' What value is to be 
put on this interpretation, which well accords with the genius of those times, 
when it was perhaps esteemed a marvellous mystery, we leave it to others to 
decide." Ibid. x Charles.] The commentators explain this to mean 

Charles II. king of Naples and Sicily. Is it not more likely to allude to 
Charles of Valois, son of Philip III. of France, who was sent for, about this 
time, into Italy by Pope Boniface, with the promise of being made emperor r 
See G. Viliani, lib. viii. cap. xlii. 






120—136. PARADISE, Canto VI. (387) 

And, when desires 1 thus err in their intention, 
True love must needs ascend with slacker beam. 
But it is part of our delight, to measure 
Our wages with the merit ; and admire 
The close proportion. Hence doth heavenly justice 
Temper so evenly affection in us, 
It ne'er can warp to any wrongfulness. 
Of diverse voices is sweet music made : 
So in our life the different degrees 
Render sweet harmony among these wheels. 
" Within the pearl, that now encloseth us, 
Shines Romeo's light 2 , whose goodly deed and fair 
Met ill acceptance. But the Provencals, 
That were his foes, have little cause for mirth. 
Ill shapes that man his course, who makes his wrong 
Of other's worth. Four daughters 3 were there born 
To Raymond Berenger 4 ; and every one 

1 When desires.'] When honour and fame are the chief motives to action, 
that loye, which has heaven for its object, must necessarily become less fervent. 

2 Romeo's light.'] The story of Romeo is involved in some uncertainty. 
The name of Romeo signified, as we have seen in the note Purg. Canto 
xxxiii. v. 78, one who went on a pilgrimage to Rome. The French writers 
assert the continuance of his ministerial office even after the decease of his 
sovereign, Raymond Berenger, Count of Provence : and they rest this asser- 
tion chiefly on the fact of a certain Romieu de Yilleneuve, who was the con- 
temporary of that prince, having left large possessions behind him, as appears 
by his will preserved in the archives of the bishoprick of Yence. That they 
are right as to the name at least, would appear from the following marginal 
note on the Monte Casino MS. Romeo de Yillanova districtus civitatis 
Yentia? de Provincia olim administratoris Raymundi Belingerj Comitis de 
Provincia — ivit peregrinando contemplatione ad Deum. Yet it is improba- 
ble, on the other hand, that the Italians, who lived so near the time, should 
be misinformed in an occurrence of such notoriety. According to them, 
after he had long been a faithful steward to Raymond, when an account was 
required from him of the revenues which he had carefully husbanded, and 
his master as lavishly disbursed, " he demanded the little mule, the staff, and 
the scrip, with which he had first entered into the Count's service, a stranger 
pilgrim from the shrine of St. James, in Galicia, and parted as he came ; 
nor was it ever known whence he was, or whither he went." G. Villani, 
lib. vi. c. xcii. The same incidents are told of him at the conclusion of cap. 
xxviii. lib. ii. of Fazio degli XJberti's Dittamondo. 3 Four daughters^ 
Of the four daughters of Raymond Berenger, Margaret, the eldest, was 
married to Louis IX. of France ; Eleanor, the next, to Henry III. of 
England ; Sancha, the third, to Richard, Henry's brother, and King of the 
Romans; and the youngest, Beatrix, to Charles I. King of Naples and 
Sicily, and brother to Louis. 4 Raymond Berenger?^ This prince, the 
last of the house of Barcelona, who was Count of Provence, died in 1245. 
He is in the list of Provencal poets. See Millet, Hist. Litt. des Troubadours, 

2 c 2 



(388) THE VISION. 137—144. 

Became a queen : and this for him did Romeo, 
Though of mean state and from a foreign land. 
Yet envious tongues incited him to ask 
A reckoning of that just one, who return'd 
Twelve fold to him for ten. Aged and poor 
He parted thence : and if the world did know 
The heart he had, begging his life by morsels, 
'Twould deem the praise, it yields him, scantly dealt." 



CANTO VII. 



ARGUMENT. 

In consequence of what had been said by Justinian, who together with the 
other spirits have now disappeared, some doubts arise in the mind of Dante 
respecting the human redemption. These difficulties are fully explained 
by Beatrice. 

"Hosanna 1 Sanctus Deus Sabaoth, 
Superillustrans claritate tu& 
Felices ignes horum malahoth." 
Thus chanting saw I turn that substance bright 2 , 
With fourfold lustre to its orb again, 
Revolving ; and the rest, unto their dance, 
With it, moved also ; and, like swiftest sparks, 
In sudden distance from my sight were veil'd. 

Me doubt possessed ; and " Speak," it whisper' d me, 
" Speak, speak unto thy lady ; that she quench 
Thy thirst with drops of sweetness." Yet blank awe, 
Which lords it o'er me, even at the sound 
Of "Beatrice's name, did bow me down 
As one in slumber held. Not long that mood 
Beatrice suffer'd : she, with such a smile, 
As might have made one blest amid the flames 3 , 
Beaming upon me, thus her words began : 
" Thou in thy thought art pondering (as I deem, 

torn. ii. p. 212. But M. Raynouard could find no manuscript of his works. 
See Choix des Poesies des Troubadours, torn. v. p. vii. 

1 Hosanna.] " Hosanna holy God of Sabaoth, abundantly illumining 
with thy brightness the blessed fires of these kingdoms." 2 That substance 
bright.'} Justinian. 3 As might have made one blest amid the flames.] 
So Giusto de' Conti, Bella Mano. " Qual salamandra." 
Che puommi nelle fiamme far beato. 



19—51. PARADISE, Canto VII. (389) 

And what I deem is truth) how just revenge 

Could be with justice punish' d : from which doubt 

I soon will free thee ; so thou mark my words ; 

For they of weighty matter shall possess thee. 

Through suffering not a curb upon the power 

That will'd in him, to his own profiting, 

That man, who was unborn \ condemn'd himself ; 

And, in himself, all, who since him have lived, 

His offspring : whence, below, the human kind 

Lay sick in grievous error many an age ; 

Until it pleased the Word of God to come 

Amongst them down, to his own person joining 

The nature from its Maker far estranged, 

By the mere act of his eternal love. 

Contemplate here the wonder I unfold. 

The nature with its Maker thus conjoin'd, 

Created first was blameless, pure and good ; 

But, through itself alone, was driven forth 

From Paradise, because it had eschew'd 

The way of truth and life, to evil turn'd. 

Ne'er then was penalty so just as that 

Inflicted by the cross, if thou regard 

The nature in assumption doom'd ; ne'er wrong 

So great, in reference to him, who took 

Such nature on him, and endured the doom. 

So different effects 2 flow'd from one act : 

For by one death God and the Jews were pleased ; 

And heaven was open'd, though the earth did quake. 

Count it not hard henceforth, when thou dost hear 

That a just vengeance 3 was, by righteous court, 

Justly revenged. But yet I see thy mind, 

By thought on thought arising, sore perplex'd ; 

Aiid, with how vehement desire, it asks 

1 That man, who was unborn.'] Adam. 2 Different effects.] The 
death of Christ "was pleasing to God, inasmuch as it satisfied the divine jus- 
tice ; and to the Jews, because it gratified their malignity : and while hea- 
ven opened for joy at the ransom of man, the earth trembled through 
compassion for its Maker. 3 A just vengeance.] The punishment of 

Christ by the Jews, although just as far as regarded the human nature as- 
sumed by him, and so a righteous vengeance of sin, yet being unjust as it 
regarded the divine nature, was itself justly revenged on the Jews by the 
destruction of Jerusalem. 



(390) 



THE VISION. 



52—82. 






Solution of the maze. What I have heard, 

Is plain, thou say'st : but wherefore God this way 

For our redemption chose, eludes my search. 

" Brother ! no eye of man not perfected, 
Nor fully ripen'd in the flame of love, 
May fathom this decree. It is a mark, 
In sooth, much aim'd at, and but little kenn'd : 
And I will therefore show thee why such way 
Was worthiest. The celestial love *, that spurns 
All envying in its bounty, in itself 
With such effulgence blazeth, as sends forth 
All beauteous things eternal. What distils 2 
Immediate thence, no end of being knows ; 
Bearing its seal immutably imprest. 
Whatever thence immediate falls, is free, 
Free wholly, uncontrollable by power 
Of each thing new : by such conformity 
More grateful to its author, whose bright beams, 
Though all partake their shining, yet in those 
Are liveliest, which resemble him the most. 
These tokens of pre-eminence 3 on man * 

Largely bestow' d, if any of them fail, 
He needs must forfeit his nobility, 
No longer stainless. Sin alone is that, 
Which doth disfranchise him, and make unlike 
To the chief good ; for that its light in him 
Is darken'd. And to dignity thus lost 
Is no return ; unless, where guilt makes void, 
He for ill pleasure pay with equal pain. 
Your nature, which entirely in its seed 
Transgress'd, from these distinctions fell, no less 

1 The celestial love.'] From Boetius de Consol. Philos. lib. iii. Metr. 9. 

Quem non externae pepulerunt fingere causae 
Materiae fluitantis opus, Yeruxn iusita summi 
Forma bom livore carens ; tu cuncta supemo 
Ducis ab exemplo, piuchrum pulcherrimus ipse 
Mundum mente gerens, similique in imagine formans, 
Perfect asque jubens perfectum absorvere partes. 

2 What distils.] " That, which proceeds immediately from God, and 
without the intervention of secondary causes, is immortal." 3 These to- 
kens of pre-eminence^] The before-mentioned gifts of immediate creation 
by God, independence on secondary causes, and consequent similitude and 
agreeableness to the divine Being, all at first conferred on man. 



83—119. PARADISE, Canto VII. (391) 

Than from its state in Paradise ; nor means 
Found of recovery (search all methods out 
As strictly as thou may) save one of these, 
The only fords were left through which to wade : 
Either, that God had of his courtesy 
Released him merely ; or else, man himself 
For his own folly by himself atoned. 

" Fix now thine eye, intently as thou canst, 
On the everlasting counsel ; and explore, 
Instructed by my words, the dread abyss. 

" Man in himself had ever lack'd the means 
Of satisfaction, for he could not stoop 
Obeying, in humility so low, 
As high, he, disobeying, thought to soar : 
And, for this reason, he had vainly tried, 
Out of his own sufficiency, to pay 
The rigid satisfaction. Then behoved 
That God should by his own ways lead him back 
Unto the life, from whence he fell, restored : 
By both his ways, I mean, or one alone 1 . 
But since the deed is ever prized the more, 
The more the doer's good intent appears ; 
Goodness celestial, whose broad signature 
Is on the universe, of all its ways 
To raise ye up, was fain to leave out none. 
Nor aught so vast or so magnificent, 
Either for him who gave or who received, 
Between the last night and the primal day, 
Was or can be. For God more bounty show'd, 
Giving himself to make man capable 
Of his return to life, than had the terms 
Been mere and unconditional release. 
And for his justice, every method else 
Were all too scant, had not the Son of God 
Humbled himself to put on mortal flesh. 

" Xow, to content thee fully, I revert ; 
And further in some part 2 unfold my speech, 

1 By both his iccys, I mean, o?- one alone. ,] Either by mercy and justice 
united, or by mercy alone. a In some part.] She reverts to that part of 
her discourse where she had said that what proceeds immediately from God 
" no end of being knows." She then proceeds to tell him that the elements, 



(392) THE VISION. 120—144. 

That tliou mayst see it clearly as ravself. 

"I see. thou sayst, the air, the fire I see, 
The earth and water, and all things of them 
Compounded, to corruption turn, and soon 
Dissolve. Yet these were also things create. 
Because, if what were told me, had been true, 
They from corruption had been therefore free. 

"The angels, my brother ! and this clime 
Wherein thou art, impassible and pure, 
I call created, even as they are 
In their whole being. But the elements, 
TVnich thou hast named, and what of them is made, 
Are by created virtue inform'd : create, 
Their substance ; and create, the informing virtue 
In these bright stars, that round them circling move. 
The soul of every brute and of each plant, 
The ray and motion of the sacred lights, 
Draw 1 from complexion with meet power endued. 
But this our life the eternal good inspires 
Immediate, and enamours of itself ; 
So that our wishes rest for ever here. j 

"And hence thou mayst by inference conclude 
Our resurrection certain 2 , if thv mind 
Consider how the human flesh was framed, 
When both our parents at the first were made." 

which, though he knew them to "be created, he yet saw dissolved, received their 
form, not immediately from God, but from a virtue or power created by God ; 
that the soul of brutes and plants is in like manner drawn forth by the stars 
with a combination of those elements meetly tempered, "di complession po- 
tenziata ; " but that the angels and the heavens maybe said to be created in 
that very manner in which they exist, without any intervention of agency. 

1 Draw.] I had before rendered this differently, and I now think er- 
roneously : 

With complex potency attract and turn. 

2 Our resurrection certain.] Yenturi appears to mistake the Poet's 
reasoning, when he observes : " Wretched for us, if we had not arguments 
more convincing, and of a higher kind, to assure us of the truth of our resur- 
rection." It is, perhaps, here intended that the whole of God's dispensation 
should be taken into the account. The conclusion may be, that as before sin 
man was immortal, and even in flesh proceeded immediately from God, so 
being restored to the favour of heaven by the expiation made for sin, he 
necessarily recovers his claim to immortality even in the body. There is 
much in this poem to justify the encomium which the learned* Salvini has 
passed on it, when, in an epistle to Redi, imitating what Horace had said of 
Homer, that the duties of life might be better learnt from the Grecian bard, 
than from the teachers of the porch or the academy, he says — 



1—14. PARADISE, Canto VIII. (393) 

CANTO VIII. 



ARGUMENT. 

The Poet ascends with Beatrice to the third heaven, which is the planet 
Venus ; and here finds the soul of Charles Martel, king of Hungary, who 
had been Dante's friend on earth, and who now, after speaking "of the 
realms to which he was heir, unfolds the cause why children differ in dis- 
position from their parents. 

The world l was, in its day of peril dark, 

Wont to believe the dotage of fond love, 

From the fair Cyprian deity, who rolls 

In her third epicycle 2 , shed on men 

By stream of potent radiance : therefore they 

Of elder time, in their old error blind, 

Not her alone with sacrifice adored 

And invocation, but like honours paid 

To Cupid and Dione, deem'd of them 

Her mother, and her son, him whom they feign'd 

To sit in Dido's bosom 3 : and from her, 

Whom I have sung preluding, borrow'd they 

The appellation of that star, which views 

Now obvious 4 , and now averse, the sun. 

And dost thou ask, what themes my mind engage ? 
The lonely hours I give to Dante's page; 
And meet more sacred learning in his lines, 
Than I had gain'd from, all the school divines. 

Se volete saper la vita mia, 
Studiando io sto lungi da tutti gli uoniini ; 
Ed ho imparato piu teologia 

In questi giorni, che ho riletto Dante, 
Che nelle scuole fatto io non avria. 
1 The world.] The Poet, on his arrival at the third heaven, tells us that 
the world, in its days of heathen darkness, believed the influence of sensual 
love to proceed from the star, to which, under the name of Venus, they paid 
divine honours ; as they worshiped the supposed mother and son of Venus, 
under the names of Dione and Cupid. 

- Epicycle.] the sphere 

With centric and eccentric scribbled o'er, 
Cycle and epicycle. Milton, P. L. b. viii. 84. 

" In sul dosso di quest o cerchio," &c. Convito di Dante, p. 48. " Upon 
the back of this circle, in the heaven of Venus, whereof we are now treating, 
is a little sphere, which has in that heaven a revolution of its own ; whose 
circle the astronomers term epicycle." 3 To sit in Dido's boso??i.] 

Virgil, iEn. lib. i. 718. 4 Now obvious.] Being at one part of the year, a 
morning, and at another an evening star. So Frezzi : — 



(394) 



THE VISION. 



15—43. 



I was not ware that I was wafted up 
Into its orb ; but the new loveliness, 
That graced my lady, gave me ample proof 
That we had enter' d there. And as in flame 
A sparkle is distinct, or voice in voice 
Discern'd, when one its even tenour keeps, 
The other comes and goes ; so in that light 
I other luminaries saw, that coursed 
In circling motion, rapid more or less, 
As their 1 eternal vision each impels. 

Never was blast from vapour charged with cold, 
Whether invisible to eye or no 2 , 
Descended with such speed, it had not seem'd 
To linger in dull tardiness, compared 
To those celestial lights, that towards us came, 
Leaving the circuit of their joyous ring, 
Conducted by the lofty seraphim. 
And after them, who in the van appear'd, j 
Such an Hosanna sounded as hath left 
Desire, ne'er since extinct in me, to hear 
Renew' d the strain. Then, parting from the rest, 
One near us drew, and sole began : " We all 
Are ready at thy pleasure, well disposed 
To do thee gentle service. We are they 
To whom thou in the world erewhile didst sing ; 
' O ye ! whose intellectual ministry 3 
6 Moves the third heaven :' and in one orb we roll, 
One motion, one impulse, with those who rule 
Princedoms in heaven 4 ; yet are of love so full, 



II raggio della stella 

Che'l sol vagheggia or drieto or davanti. II Quadrir. lib. i. cap. i. 

whose ray, 

Being page and usher to the day, 

Does mourn behind the sun, before him play. John Hall. 
1 As their.'] As each, according to their several deserts, partakes more or 
less of the beatific vision. 2 Whether invisible to eye or no.~\ He calls the 
blast invisible, if unattended by gross vapour ; otherwise, visible. 

3 * O ye ! whose intellectual ministry.] 

Voi ch' intendendo ll terzo ciel movete. 
The first line in our Poet's first Canzone. See his Convito, p. 40. 

4 Princedoms in heaven.'] See Canto xxviii. 112, where the princedoms 
are, as here, made co-ordinate with this third sphere. In his Convito, p. 54, 
he has ranked them differently, making the thrones the moving intelligences 
of Venus. 



44—70. PARADISE, Canto VIII. (395) 

That to please thee 'twill be as sweet to rest." 

After mine eyes had with meek reverence 
Sought the celestial guide, and were by her 
Assured, they turn'd again unto the light, 
Who had so largely promised ; and with voice 
That bare the lively pressure of my zeal, 
" Tell who ye are," I cried. Forthwith it grew 
In size and splendour, through augmented joy ; 
And thus it answer'd : "A short date, below, 
The world possessed me. Had the time been more l 9 
Much evil, that will come, had never chanced. 
My gladness hides thee from me, which doth shine 
Around, and shroud me, as an animal 
In its own silk enswathed. Thou lovedst me well 2 , 
And hadst good cause ; for had my sojourning 
Been longer on the earth, the love I bare thee 
Had put forth more than blossoms. The left bank 3 , 
That Rhone, when he hath mix'd with Sorga, laves, 
In me its lord expected, and that horn 
Of fair Ausonia 4 , with its boroughs old, 
Bari, and Croton, and Gaeta piled, 
From where the Trento disembogues his waves, 
With Verde mingled, to the salt-sea flood. 
Already on my temples beam'd the crown, 
Which gave me sovereignty over the land 5 
By Danube wash'd, when as he strays beyond 
The limits of his German shores. The realm, 

1 Had the time been more.] The spirit now speaking is Charles Martel, 
crowned king of Hungary, and son of Charles II. king of Naples and Sicily, 
to which dominions, dying in his father's lifetime, he did not succeed. The 
evil, that would have been prevented by the longer life of Charles Martel, was 
that resistance which his brother Robert, king of Sicily, who succeeded him, 
made to the Emperor Henry VII. See G. Villani, lib. ix. cap. xxxviii. 

* Thou lovedst me zcell.] Charles Martel might have been known to our 
Poet at Florence, whither he came to meet his father in 1295, the year of his 
death. The retinue and the habiliments of the young monarch are minutely 
described by G. Yillani, who adds, that " he remained more than twenty 
days in Florence, waiting for his father King Charles and his brothers ; 
during which time great honour was done him by the Florentines, and he 
showed no less love towards them, and he was much in favour with all." 
Lib. viii. cap. xiii. His brother Robert, king of Naples, was the friend of 
Petrarch. s The left bank.] Provence. 

4 That horn 

Of fair Ausonia.] The kingdom of Naples. 

5 The land.] Hungary. 



(396) THE VISION. 71—90. 

Where, on the gulf by stormy Eurus lash'd, 

Betwixt Pelorus and Pachynian heights, 

The beautiful Trinacria l lies in gloom, 

(Not through Typhosus 2 , but the vapoury cloud 

Bituminous upsteam'd,) that too did look 

To have its sceptre wielded by a race [Rodolph 3 ; 

Of monarchs, sprung through me from Charles and 

Had not ill-lording 4 , which doth desperate make 5 

The people ever, in Palermo raised 

The shout of ' death,' re-echoed loud and long. 

Had but my brother's foresight 6 kenn'd as much, 

He had been warier, that the greedy want 

Of Catalonia might not work his bale. 

And truly need there is that he forecast, 

Or other for him, lest more freight be laid 

On his already over-laden bark. 

Nature in him, from bounty fallen to thrift, 

Would ask the guard of braver arms, than such 

As only care to have their coffers fill'd." 

" My liege ! it doth enhance the joy thy words 

1 The beautiful Trinacria.] Sicily ; so called from its three promontories, 
of which. Pachyrms and Pelorus, here mentioned, are two. 2 Typhosus.] 
The giant, whom Jupiter is fabled to have overwhelmed under the mountain 
JEtna, from whence he vomited forth smoke and flame. 3 Sprung through 
me from Charles and Rodolph.'] " Sicily would be still ruled by a race of 
monarchs, descended through me from Charles I. and Rodolph I., the former 
my grandfather, king of Naples and Sicily ; the latter, emperor of Germany, 
my father-in-law;" both celebrated in the Purgatory, Canto vii. * Had 
not ill-lording.] " If the ill conduct of our governors in Sicily had not ex- 
cited the resentment and hatred of the people, and stimulated them to that 
dreadful massacre at the Sicilian vespers ; " in consequence of which the 
kingdom fell into the hands of Peter III. of Arragon, in 1282. 
Miracol parve ad ogni persona 
Che ad una voce tutta la Cicilia 
Si rubello dalT una all' altra nona, 
Gridando, mora mora la famiglia 
Di Carlo, mora mora gli franceschi, 
E cosi ne taglio ben otto miglia. 
O quanto i forestier che giungon freschi 
Nell' altrui terre, denno esser cortesi, 
Fuggir lussuria e non esser maneschi. 

Fazio degli Ube?'ti, Dittamondo, lib. ii. cap. 39. 
5 Desperate make.] " Accuora." Monti in his Proposta construes this 
" afflicts." Vellutello's interpretation of it, which is " makes desperate," 
appears to be nearer the mark. 6 My brother's foresight.] He seems to 
tax his brother Robert with employing necessitous and greedy Catalonians 
to administer the affairs of his kingdom. 



91— -117. PARADISE, Canto VIII. (397) 

Infuse into me, mighty as it is, 

To think my gladness manifest to thee, 

As to myself, who own it, when thou look'st 

Into the source and limit of all good, 

There, where thou markest that which thou dost speak, 

Thence prized of me the more. Glad thou hast made me: 

Now make intelligent, clearing the doubt 

Thy speech hath raised in me ; for much I muse, 

How bitter can spring up 1 , when sweet is sown." 

I thus inquiring ; he forthwith replied : 
" If I have power to show one truth, soon that 
Shall face thee, which thy questioning declares 
Behind thee now conceal'd. The Good 2 , that guides 
And blessed makes this realm which thou dost mount, 
Ordains its providence to be the virtue 
In these great bodies : nor the natures only 
The all-perfect mind provides for, but with them 
That which preserves them too ; for nought, that lies 
Within the range of that unerring bow, 
But is as level with the destined aim, 
As ever mark to arrow's point opposed. 
Were it not thus, these heavens, thou dost visit, 
Would their eifect so work, it would not be 
Art, but destruction ; and this may not chance, 
If the intellectual powers, that move these stars, 
Fail not, and who, first faulty made them, fail. 
Wilt thou this truth more clearly evidenced ? " 

1 How bitter can spring up.~] " How a covetous son can spring from a liberal 
father." Yet that father has himself been accused of avarice in the Purga- 
tory, Canto xx. 78 ; though his general character was that of a bounteous 
prince. 2 The Good.] The Supreme Being uses these spheres as the intelli- 
gent instruments of his providence in the conduct of terrestrial natures ; so that 
these natures cannot but be conducted aright, unless these heavenly bodies 
should themselves fail from not having been made perfect at first, or the 
Creator of them should fail. To this Dante replies, that nature, he is satis- 
fied, thus directed must do her part. Charles Martel then reminds him, that 
he had learned from Aristotle, that human society requires a variety of con- 
ditions, and consequently a variety of qualifications in its members. Ac- 
cordingly, men, he concludes, are born with different powers and capacities, 
caused by the influence of the heavenly bodies at the time of their nativity ; 
on which influence, and not on their parents, those powers and capacities 
depend. Having thus resolved the question proposed, Charles Martel adds, 
by way of corollary, that the want of observing their natural bent in the 
destination of men to their several offices in life, is the occasion of much of 
the disorder that prevails in the world. 






THE VISION. 



-139. 



To whom I thus : "It is enough : no f - 
I see. lest nature in her part should toe." 

He straight rejoin'd: " Ss re it worse for n 

If he lived not in fellowship on earth : " 

" Yea," answer'd I : •• nor here a reason needs.*' 

•• And may that be. if different estates 

Grow not of different duties in vour life : 

> 

Consult your teacher 1 , and he tells you 'no'." 

Thus did he come, deducing to this point. 
And then concluded: "For this cause behove. 
The roots, from whence your operations come, 
Must differ. Therefore one is Solon born ; 
Another. Xerxes : and Mdchisedec 
A third : and he a fourth, whose airy voyage 
Cost him his son 2 . In her circuitous course, 
Nature, that is the seal to mortal wax. 
Doth well her art. but no distinction owns 
r Twixt one or other household. Hence : . efiik 
That Esau is so wide of Jacob 3 : hence 
Quirinus 4 of so base a father springs. 
He dates from Mars his lineage. Were it not 
That Providence 3elestial overruled. 



1 C U our teacher ~_ Aris: :tle. i-rn IJ avonolav fi tt6\is, k.t.X. 
De Hep. lib. iii. cap. i. "Since i ; b a made \v nn^ 

from one another ; ::t ewen as an animal, in the first instance. .onsists :: 
soul and body: and the soul. :: reason and and a family. :: nan 

and woman ; and property, of master and ; in like manner a state 

consists both of ail these, and :r :i.r ; these of other dissimilar kinds . ft 
nee ;>sarily follows, that the excellence of all the members of the state can- 
not be one and the same.' 1 

- W : voyage 

Cast I Ids 

a Esau is so widt ;- 'Jacob. ' Genesis, sxr. 22. Yentmi blames our P. el 
for selecting an instance, which, as that comment • proves the direct 

Bontiaiy :: that which he LUTfii^T 7 .. as they were born nnder the same as- 
eendant; and. th erefi ire, :: the Stan had any influence, the two brothers 
should have been born with She same temperament and disposition. this 
objection is well answered by Lombardi, who quotes a passage from Roger 
Bacon, to show that the smallest livenily of place was held to make a di- 
versity in the influence of the heavenly bodies, m as to occasion an entire 
discrepancy even between children in the same womb. It must be recol- 
lected, that — hatevesr power may be sttribated to the stars by our Poet, he 
does not suppose :: :: pat any constraint m the freedom :: the human a 
m thai BhimeDGal as bja ipmion ■ppearstB as, it was, in a moral pain 
view at least, harmless, 4 Q n] 3. an nl as, barn :: 5: ;bscure a 

father, that his parentage was attributed to M 



140—154. PARADISE, Canto VIII. (399) 

Nature, in generation, must the path 

Traced by the generator still pursue 

Unswervingly. Thus place I in thy sight 

That, which was late behind thee. But, in sign 

Of more affection for thee, 'tis my will 

Thou wear this corollary. Nature ever, 

Finding discordant fortune, like all seed 

Out of its proper climate, thrives but ill. 

And were the world below content to mark 

And work on the foundation nature lays, 

It would not lack supply of excellence. 

But ye perversely to religion strain 

Him, who was born to gird on him the sword, 

And of the fluent phraseman make your king : 

Therefore l your steps have wander'd from the path." 



CANTO IX. 



ARGUMENT. 

The next spirit, who converses with our Poet in the planet Venus, is the 
amorous Cunizza. To her succeeds Folco, or Folques, the Provencal 
bard, who declares that the soul of Rahab the harlot is there also ; and 
then, blaming the Pope for his neglect of the holy land, prognosticates 
some reverse to the papal power. 

After solution of my doubt, thy Charles, 
O fair Clemenza 2 , of the treachery 3 spake, 
That must befal his seed : but, "Tell it not," 
Said he, " and let the destined years come round." 
Nor may I tell thee more, save that the meed 
Of sorrow well-deserved shall quit your wrongs. 

And now the visage of that saintly light 4 
Was to the sun, that fills it, turn'd again, 

1 Therefore.] " The wisdom of God hath divided the genius of men ac- 
cording to the different affairs of the world ; and varied their inclinations 
according to the variety of actions to be performed therein. Which they who 
consider not, rudely rushing upon professions and ways of life unequal to 
their natures, dishonour not only themselves and their functions, but pervert 
the harmony of the whole world." Br oxen, o?i Vulgar Errors, b. i. ch. 5. 

8 O fair Clemenza.] Daughter of Charles Martel, and second wife of 
Louis X. of France. 3 The treachery.] He alludes to the occupation of 
the kingdom of Sicily by Robert, in exclusion of his brother's son Carobert, 
or Charles Robert, the rightful heir. See G. Villain, lib. viii. c. cxii, 
4 That saintly light.] Charles Martel. 



4v; 



THE VISION. 



c —;4. 



As :: :0e r:-:0. ^b:se rler/AAe •:: :Oiss 
Sufficed! all. O ye misguided souls ! 
Infatuate, who from such a good estrange 
Your hearts, and bend your gaze on vanity, 
Alas for yon ! — And lo ! toward me, next, 
An::Oer ::" these spier: ie::: Arrees r-rrr-r^L'd. 
That, by its outward brightening, testified 
The will it had to pleasure me. The eyea 
E -::;e. resrA;:. lis beAre. 



Rrn 

A:;:: 



D. 



iAAs:ed 
0. "A: 



I 



And prove the 
I can reflect on 

riis: ve; ~: s i 
Where :: !: e:or 
As ice ~h: : :; 
Of Ae lerravr 
Be:~een PAA: 
Of Brenta and 
But to no lofty 
Fri-ci whence -e 
Thi: screA sA 
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An 5 here I Ai 
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rir: 



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rise. 



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ec:h 



earth Cunizza 3 : 

v A lAh: 

I n:uj;h: repine 4 . 



1 Prove thou to me.] 

i-'T-irj. h: O On: is": 
c ~lti:s. f_". ; i. STints "' ; 
I'i::f Onr-rOn n-nies: 
:ns rr::i O -1 ~- r - r: - r ; - ' 
_irT~TTii EOm: in n 
Omn mi Eim. is sit 
: n_ : -is rjrzn: Z z: : in : 

iHT. ± A TTT-IZJ — t liT: 

- - 

?"1T. ITr TrilTri ;7 Oli 

Muratari, Ker. It. Sedj 
":nO. xOimri :: 5:. I 
Oir.:: vi. mi — ii. — -":: 
nirrin r Oin in ~: 

V-.~", - * '* - 12. Tlr s~.*~~ - ; 

tyrant, "was by her broth 

hf Os-: l;-0 fillf.z. ':t : 
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fied timt I am not aflott 



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35—52. PARADISE, Canto IX. (401) 

Nor grudge myself the cause of this my lot : 
Which haply vulgar hearts can scarce conceive. 
" This 1 jewel, that is next me in our heaven, 
Lustrous and costly, great renown hath left, 
And not to perish, ere these hundred years 
Five times 2 absolve their round. Consider thou, 
If to excel be worthy man's endeavour, 
When such life may attend the first 3 . Yet they 
Care not for this, the crowd 4 that now are girt 
By Adice and Tagliamento, still 
Impenitent, though scourged. The hour is near 5 
When for their stubbornness, at Padua's marsh 
The water shall be changed, that laves Vicenza. 
And where Cagnano meets with Sile, one 6 
Lords it, and bears his head aloft, for whom 
The web 7 is now a-warping. Feltro 8 too 
Shall sorrow for its godless shepherd's fault, 
Of so deep stain, that never, for the like, 

1 This.] Folco of Genoa, a celebrated Provencal poet, commonly termed 
Folques of Marseilles, of which place he was perhaps bishop. Many errors 
of Nostradamus, concerning him, which have been followed by Crescimbeni, 
Quadrio, and Millot, are detected by the diligence of Tiraboschi. Mr. Ma- 
thias's edit. v. i. p. 18. All that appears certain, is what we are told in this 
Canto, that he was of Genoa ; and by Petrarch, in the Triumph of Love, 
c. iv. that he was better known by the appellation he derived from Marseilles, 
and at last assumed the religious habit. One of his verses is cited by Dante, 
De Vulg. Eloq. lib. hi. c. 6. 2 Five times.] The five hundred years are 
elapsed : and unless the Provencal MSS. should be brought to light, the 
poetical reputation of Folco must rest on the mention made of him by the 
more fortunate Italians. What I scarcely ventured to hope at the time this 
note was written, has been accomplished by the great learning and diligence 
of M. Raynouard. See hisChoix des Poesies des Troubadours and Lexique 
Roman, in which Folques and his Provencal brethren are awakened into the 
second life augured to them by our Poet. 3 When such life may attend 
the first.] When the mortal life of man may be attended by so lasting and 
glorious a memory, which is a kind of second life. 4 The crowd.] The 

people who inhabited the tract of country bounded by the river Tagliamento 
to the east and Adice to the west. 5 The hour is near.] Cunizza foretels 

the defeat of Giacopo da Carrara and the Paduans, by Can Grande, at Vi- 
cenza, on the 18th September, 1314. See G. Yillani, lib. ix. cap, lxii. 

6 One.] She predicts also the fate of Riccardo da Camino, who is said to have 
been murdered at Trevigi, (where the rivers Sile and Cagnano meet,) while 
he was engaged in playing at chess. "' The web.] The net, or snare, into 
which he is destined to fall. 8 Feltro.] The Bishop of Feltro having re- 
ceived a number of fugitives from Ferrara, who were in opposition to the 
Pope, under a promise of protection, afterwards gave them up ; so that they 
were reconducted to that city, and the greater part of them there put to 
death. 

2 D 



;-:; 



THE VISION 






Was 
The : 
And- 
The ■ 
Coun 
The i 
Mim 
Eehe. 
VTne: 
Sh- 
Inten 

mil 

A thi 
Like 
For. : 
Of zl 
As :h 
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Thai 



M.oI;ohs - V:.h uoohosei. T 
skillet 3 that would hold Fe 
wearied he, who ounce by 

which this pries: 3 , in show 



vei^rh it. 



ill suit 



to "OS 



rocots of our God: 

gs we avouoh :';r _ ; : I.' 
oh on of her thoughts 

oe whrri she bte 



T 



- . - 

owol: wax .1 



ark. vVhwihe:: hel: 

— .' vr -*— ----- - - - ] • 

okos the kicxoressive 



>jepreclare. 

given in a note to Pmg. Canto 

-hh :: grs:-r 

Chaucer, The Court of Lome. 

as to flue BcnsE : least intended 

Effulgence.] As joy is 

l increase of splendour in Para- 

hi. H :-h Iw hV-^hhiTh.:^ .1 h" :hr.-: — 



75—94. PARADISE, Canto IX. (403) 

Pastime of heaven, the which those ardours sing, 
That cowl them with six shadowing wings l outspread ? 
I would not wait thy asking, wert thou known 
To me, as throughly I to thee am known." 

He, forthwith answering, thus his words began : 
" The valley of waters 2 , widest next to that 3 
Which doth the earth engarland, shapes its course. 
Between discordant shores 4 , against the sun 
Inward so far, it makes meridian 5 there, 
Where was before the horizon. Of that vale 
Dwelt I upon the shore, 'twixt Ebro's stream 
And Macro's 6 , that divides with passage brief 
Genoan bounds from Tuscan. East and west 
Are nearly one to Begga 7 and my land 
Whose haven 8 erst was with its own blood warm. 
Who knew my name, were wont to call me Folco ; 
And I did bear impression of this heaven 9 , 
That now bears mine : for not with fiercer flame 
Glow'd Belus' daughter 10 , injuring alike 
Sichaeus and Creusa, than did I, 

1 Six shadowing icijigs.] "Above it stood the seraphims : each one had 
six wings. " Isaiah, vi. 2. Ante majestatis ejus gloriam cherubim senas 
habentes alas semper adstantes non cessant clamare, sanctus, sanctus, sanctus. 
Alberici Visio, § 39. 

six wings he wore to shade 

His lineaments divine. Milto?i, P. L. b. v. 278. 

2 The valley of waters.] The Mediterranean sea. 3 That.] The great 
ocean. 4 Discordant shores. ~\ Europe and Africa. 5 Meridian.] Ex- 
tending to the east, the Mediterranean at last reaches the coast of Palestine, 
which is on its horizon when it enters the Straits of Gibraltar. " Wherever 
a man is," says Vellutello, " there he has, above his head, his own particular 
meridian circle.' ' 

6 ' Twixt Ebro's stream 

And Macra's.] Ebro, a river to the west, and Macra, to the east of 
Genoa where Folco was bom ; others think that Marseilles and not Genoa 
is here described ; and then Ebro must be understood of the river in Spain. 
7 Begga.] A place in Africa. 8 Whose haven.] Alluding to the terrible 
slaughter of the Genoese made by the Saracens in 936 ; for which event 
Vellutello refers to the history of Augustino Giustiniani. Those, who con- 
ceive that our Poet speaks of Marseilles, suppose the slaughter of its inhabit- 
ants made in the time of Julius Caesar to be alluded to. It must however 
have been Genoa, as that place, and not Marseilles, lies opposite to Buggea 
or Begga on the African coast. Fazio degli TJberti describes Buggea as 
looking towards Majorca. 

Yidi Buggea che ve di grande loda ; 

Questa nel mare Maiorica guata. Dittamando, 1. v. cap. 6. 
9 This heaven. 1 The planet Venus, by which Folco declares himself to 
have been formerly influenced. 10 Belus' daughter.] Dido. 

2 d 2 



(404) THE VISION. 95—123. 

Long as it suited the unripen'd down 

That fledged my cheek ; nor she of Rhodope l , 

That was beguiled of Demophoon ; 

Nor Jove's son 2 , when the charms of Iole 

Were shrined within his heart. And yet there bides 

No sorrowful repentance here, but mirth, 

Not for the fault, (that doth not come to mind,) 

But for the virtue, whose o'erruling sway 

And providence have wrought thus quaintly. Here 

The skill is look'd into, that fashioneth 

With such effectual working 3 , and the good 

Discern 'd, accruing to the lower world 4 

From this above. But fully to content 

Thy wishes all that in this sphere have birth, 

Demands my further parle. Inquire thou wouldst, 

Who of this light is denizen, that here 

Beside me sparkles, as the sun-beam doth 

On the clear wave. Know then, the soul of Rahab 5 

Is in that gladsome harbour ; to our tribe 

United, and the foremost rank assign' d. 

She to this heaven 6 , at which the shadow ends 

Of your sublunar world, was taken up, 

First, in Christ's triumph, of all souls redeem'd : 

For well behoved, that, in some part of heaven, 

She should remain a trophy, to declare 

The mighty conquest won with either palm 7 ; 

For that she favour'd first the high exploit 

Of Joshua on the holy land, whereof 

The Pope 8 recks little now. Thy city, plant 

1 She of Rhodope. .] Phyllis. 2 Jove's son.] Hercules. 3 With such 
effectual working.] All the editions, except the Nidobeatina, do not, as Lom- 
bardi affirms, read " contanto ; " for Yellutello's of 1544 is certainly one ex- 
ception. * To the lower world.] I have altered my former translation here, 
in compliance with a reading adopted by Lombardi from the Xidobeatina ; 
Perche '1 mondo instead of Perche al mondo. But the passage is still obscure. 
5 Rahab.] Heb. xi. 31. 6 This heaven.] " This planet of Venus, at 

which the shadow of the earth ends, as Ptolemy writes in his Almagest." 
Vellutello. 7 With either palm.] By both his hands nailed to the cross. 
8 The Pope.] " Who cares not that the holy land is in the possession of the 
Saracens." See also Canto xt. 136. 

Ite superbi, O miseri Christiani 
Consumando l'un l'altro ; e non xi caglia 
Che '1 sepolcro di Cristo e in man di cani. 

Petrarca, Trionfo dello, Fama, cap. ii, 



124—137. PARADISE, Canto IX. (405) 

Of him \ that on his Maker turn'd the back, 
And of whose envying so much woe hath sprung, 
Engenders and expands the cursed flower 2 , 
That halh made wander both the sheep and lambs, 
Turning the shepherd to a wolf. For this, 
The gospel and great teachers laid aside, 
The decretals 3 , as their stuft margins show, 
Are the sole study. Pope and Cardinals, 
Intent on these, ne'er journey but in thought 
To Nazareth, where Gabriel oped his wings. 
Yet it may chance, ere long, the Vatican 4 , 
And other most selected parts of Rome, 
That were the grave of Peter's soldiery, 
Shall be deliver'd from the adulterous bond." 



CANTO X. 



ARGUMENT. 

Their next ascent carries them into the sun, which is the fourth heaven. 
Here they are encompassed with a wreath of blessed spirits, twelve in 
number. Thomas Aquinas, who is one of these, declares the names and 
endowments of the rest. 

Looking into his first-born with the love, 
Which breathes from both eternal, the first Might 

1 Of him.'] Of Satan. 2 The cursed flower, .] The coin of Florence, called 
the noren ; the covetous desire of which has excited the Pope to so much evil. 
3 The decretals.'] The canon law. So in the De Monarchia, lib. iii. p. 137. 
" There are also a third set, whom they call Decretalists. These, alike igno- 
rant of theology and philosophy, relying wholly on their decretals, (which I 
indeed esteem not unworthy of reverence,) in the hope I suppose of obtaining 
for them a paramount influence, derogate from the authority of the empire. 
Nor is this to be wondered at, when I have heard one of them saying, and 
impudently maintaining, that traditions are the foundation of the faith of 
the church." He proceeds to confute this opinion, and concludes " that the 
church does not derive its authority from traditions, but traditions from the 
church : " " necesse est, ut non ecclesiae a traditionibus, sed ab ecclesia tradi- 
tionibus accedat authoritas." In accordance with the sentiments of Dante 
on this point, the Church of England has framed that article, so well worthy 
of being duly considered and carried into practice, which begins : " It is not 
necessary that traditions and ceremonies be in all places one, or utterly like ; 
for at all times they have been divers, and may be changed according to the 
diversity of countries, times, and men's manners, so that nothing be ordained 
against God's word." Article xxxiv. 4 The Vatican.'] He alludes either 
to the death of Pope Boniface VIII. or, as Venturi supposes, to the coming 
of the Emperor Henry VII. into Italy ; or else, according to the yet more 
probable conjecture of Lombard!, to the transfer of the holy see from Rome 
to Avignon, which took place in the pontificate of Clement V. 






THE VISION 



3—30. 



Ineffable, wherever eye or mind 

Can roam, hath in such order all disposed. 

As none may see and fail to enjoy. Raise, then. 

reader ! to the lofty wheels, with me. 

Thy ken directed to the point 1 . whereat 

One motion strikes on the other. There begin 

Thy wonder of the mighty Architect. 

Who loves his work so inwardly, his eye 

Doth ever watch it. See, how thence oblique 2 

Brancheth the circle, where the planets roll 

To pour their wished influence on the world ; 

Whose path not bending thus, in heaven above 3 

Much virtue would be lost, and here on earth 

All power well nigh extinct : or. from direct 

Were its departure distant more or less. 

I' the universal order, great defect 

Must, both in heaven and here beneath, ensue. 

Now rest thee, reader ! on thy bench, and muse 
Anticipative of the feast to come ; 
So shall delight make thee not feel thy toil. 
Lo ! I have set before thee ; for thyself 
Feed now : the matter I indite, henceforth 
Demands entire my thought. Join'd with the part 4 . 
Which late we told of, the great minister 5 
Of nature, that upon the world imprints 
The virtue of the heaven, and doles out 
Time for us with his beam, went circling on 
Along the spires 6 , where 7 each hour sooner comes; 



1 The point.] "To that par* of heaven.'* as Yenturi explains it. "in 
which the equinoctial circle and the zodiac intersect each other, where the 
common motion of the heavens from east to west may he said to strike with 
greatest force against the motion proper to the planets : and this repereus- 
siom as it were, is here the strangest, because the velocity of each is increased 
to the utmost by their respective distance fr-im the pales, Such, at least is 
the system of Dante." 2 Ob J ique.] The zodiac. 3 In heaven above.] 
If the planets did not preserve that order in which they move. :hey would 
not receive nor transmit their- due influences: and if the zodiac were not 
thus oblique ; if towards the north it either passed, cr w^ut short of the 
tropic of Cancer, or else towards the south it passed, or went -heat of the 
tropic of Capricorn, it would not divide the seasons as i: now - -■ ± he 

part.] The above-mentioned intersection of the equinoctial cimle and the 
zodiac. 5 Minister.] The sun. 5 A".onq the spires. 1 A: ; :r ding to our 
Poet's svstem. as the earth is motionless, the sun passes. "bv a suiral motion. 



from one tropic to the other. 
earlier after the venial equinox. 



Wh 



] In which the sun rises every day 



31—67. PARADISE, Canto X. (407) 

And I was with him, weetless of ascent, 

But as a man \ that weets him come, ere thinking. 

For Beatrice, she who passeth on 
So suddenly from good to better, time 
Counts not the act, oh then how great must needs 
Have been her brightness ! What there was i' th' sun, 
(Where I had enter' d,) not through change of hue, 
But light transparent — did I summon up 
Genius, art, practice — I might not so speak, 
It should be e'er imagined : yet believed 
It may be, and the sight be justly craved. 
And if our fantasy fail of such height, 
What marvel, since no eye above the sun 
Hath ever traveled ? Such are they dwell here, 
Fourth family 2 of the Omnipotent Sire, 
Who of his spirit and of his offspring 3 shows ; 
And holds them still enraptured with the view. 
And thus to me Beatrice : " Thank, oh thank 
The Sun of angels, him, who by his grace 
To this perceptible hath lifted thee." 

Never was heart in such devotion bound, 
And with complacency so absolute 
Disposed to render up itself to God, 
As mine was at those words : and so entire 
The love for Him, that held me, it eclipsed 
Beatrice in oblivion. Nought displeased 
Was she, but smiled thereat so joyously, 
That of her laughing eyes the radiance brake 
And scatter' d my collected mind abroad. 

Then saw I a bright band, in liveliness 
Surpassing, who themselves did make the crown, 
And us their centre : yet more sweet in voice, 
Than, in their visage, beaming. Cinctured thus, 
Sometime Latona's daughter we behold, 
When the impregnate air retains the thread 
That weaves her zone. In the celestial court, 
Whence I return, are many jewels found, 

1 But as a ?na?i.~\ That is, he was quite insensible of it. 2 Fourth fa- 
?nily.] The inhabitants of the sun, the fourth planet. 3 Of his spirit and 
of his offspring.] The procession of the third, and the generation of the 
second person in the Trinity. 



(408) 



THE VISION, 



68—95. 



So dear and beautiful, they cannot brook 
Transporting from that realm : and of these lights 
Such was the song 1 . Who doth not prune his wing 
To soar up thither, let him 2 look from thence 
For tidings from the dumb. "When, singing thus, 
Those burning suns had circled round us thrice, 
As nearest stars around the fixed pole ; 

Then seem'd they like to ladies, from the dance 

%/ * 

Xot ceasing, but suspense, in silent pause, 

Listening, till they haye caught the strain anew : 

Suspended so they stood : and, from within, 

Thus heard I one, who spake : " Since with its beam 

The grace, whence true loye lighteth first his flame, 

That after doth increase by loying, shines 

So multiplied in thee, it leads thee up 

Along this ladder, down whose hallow' d steps 

None e'er descend, and mount them not again ; 

Who from his phial should refuse thee wine 

To slake thy thirst, no less constrained 3 were, 

Than water flowing not unto the sea. 

Thou fain wouldst hear, what plants are these, that bloom 

In the bright garland, which, admiring, girds 

This fair dame round, who strengthens thee for heayen. 

I, then 4 , was of the lambs, that Dominic 

Leads, for his saintly flock, along the way 

Where well they thriye, not swoln with yanity. 

He, nearest on my right hand, brother was. 

And master to me : Albert of Cologne 5 



1 Such was the song.'] The song of these spirits was ineffable. It was 
like a jewel so highly prized, that the exportation of it to another country is 
prohibited by law. 8 Let him.'] Let him not expect any intelligence at 
all of that place, for it surpasses description. 3 Xo less constrained.'] 

" The rivers might as easily cease to now towards the sea. as we could 
deny thee thy request." 4 /, then.] u I was of the Dominican order." 

5 Albert of Cologne.] Albertus Magnus was born at Laugingen. in Thu- 
ringia, in 1193, and studied at Paris and at Padua ; at the latter of which 
places he entered into the Dominican order. He then taught theology in 
various parts of Germany, and particularly at Cologne. Thomas Aquinas 
was his favourite pupil. In 1260, he reluctantly accepted the bishopric of 
Ratisbon, and in two years after resigned it, and returned to his cell in 
Cologne, where the remainder of his life was passed in superintending the 
school, a§d in composing his voluminous works on divinity and natural sci- 
ence. He died in 1280. The absurd imputation of his having dealt in the 
magical art is well known ; and his biographers take some pains to clear him 



96—108. PARADISE, Canto X. (409) 

Is this ; and, of Aquinum, Thomas l I. 
If thou of all the rest wouldst be assured, 
Let thine eye, waiting on the words I speak, 
In circuit journey round the blessed wreath. 
That next resplendence issues from the smile 
Of Gratian 2 , who to either forum 3 lent 
Such help, as favour wins in Paradise. 
The other, nearest, who adorns our quire, 
Was Peter 4 , he that with the widow gave 5 
To holy church his treasure. The fifth light 6 , 
Goodliest of all, is by such love inspired, 
That all your world craves tidings of his doom 7 : 
Within, there is the lofty light, endow'd 

of it. Scriptores Ordinis Pra?dicatorum, by Quetif and Echard. Lut. Par. 1719. 
fol. torn. i. p. 162. Frezzi places Albertus Magnus next in rank to Aristotle : 
Alberto Magno e dopo lui '1 secondo : 

Egli suppli li membri, e '1 vestimento 

Alia Filosofia in questo mondo. II Quadrir. lib. iv. cap. 9. 

1 Of Aquinum, Thomas.'] Thomas Aquinas, of whom Bucer is reported to 
have said, "Take but Thomas away, and I will overturn the church of 
Rome ;" and whom Hooker terms " the greatest among the school divines," 
(Eccl. Pol. b. iii. § 9,) was born of noble parents, who anxiously but vainly 
endeavoured to divert him from a life of celibacy and study. He died in 
1274, at the age of forty-seven. Echard and Quetif, ibid. p. 271. See also 
Purgatory, Canto xx. v. 67. A modem French writer has collected some 
particulars relating to the influence which the writings of Thomas Aquinas 
and Buonaventura had on the opinions of Dante. See the third part of Oza- 
nam's Dante et la Philosophic Catholique au treizieme siecle. 8o. Par. 1839. 

2 Gratia?i.~\ " Gratian, a Benedictine monk belonging to the Convent of 
St. Felix and Nabor, at Bologna, and by birth a Tuscan, composed, about 
the year 1130, for the use of the schools, an abridgment or epitome of canon 
law, drawn from the letters of the pontifs, the decrees of councils, and the 
writings of the ancient doctors." Madeline's Mosheim, v. iii. cent. xii. part 
ii. cap. i. § 6. 3 To either forum.] " By reconciling," as Venturi explains 
it, " the civil with the canon law." 4 Peter.] " Pietro Lombardo was of 
obscure origin, nor is the place of his birth in Lombardy ascertained. With 
a recommendation from the Bishop of Lucca to St. Bernard, he went into 
France to continue his studies ; and for that purpose remained some time at 
Rheims, whence he afterwards proceeded to Paris. Here his reputation was 
so great, that Philip, brother of Louis VII., being chosen bishop of Paris, re- 
signed that dignity to Pietro, whose pupil he had been. He held his bishopric 
only one year, and died 1160. His Liber Sententiarum is highly esteemed. 
It contains a system of scholastic theology, so much more complete than 
any which had been yet seen, that it may be deemed an original work." 
Tiraboschi, Storia delta Lett. Ital. torn. iii. lib. iv. cap. ii. 5 That with 
the widow gave.] This alludes to the beginning of the Liber Sententiarum, 
where Peter says: " Cupiens aliquid de penuria ac tenuitate nostra cum 
paupercula in gazophylacium domini mittere, &c." 6 The fifth light.] 
Solomon. ~ His doom.] It was a common question, it seems, whether 
Solomon were saved or no. 



(410) THE VISION. 109—127. 

With sapience so profound, if truth be truth, 

That with a ken of such wide amplitude 

No second hath arisen. Next behold 

That taper's radiance ] , to whose view was shown, 

Clearliest, the nature and the ministry 

Angelical, while yet in flesh it dwelt. 

In the other little light serenely smiles 

That pleader 2 for the christian temples, he, 

Who did provide Augustin of his lore. 

Now, if thy mind's eye pass from light to light, 

Upon my praises following, of the eighth 3 

Thy thirst is next. The saintly soul, that shows 

The world's deceitfulness, to all who hear him, 

Is, with the sight of all the good that is, 

Blest there. The limbs, whence it was driven, lie 

Down in Cieldauro 4 ; and from martyrdom 

And exile came it here. Lo ! further on, 

Where flames the ardurous spirit of Isidore 5 ; 

Of Bede 6 ; and Richard 7 , more than man, erewhile, 

1 That taper's radiance.] St. Dionysius, the Areopagite. " The famous 
Grecian fanatic, who gave himself out for Dionysius the Areopagite, disciple 
of St. Paul, and who, under the protection of this venerable name, gave 
laws and instructions to those that were desirous of raising their souls above 
all human things, in order to unite them to their great source by sublime 
contemplation, lived most probably in this century (the fourth) ; though 
some place him before, others after, the present period." Maclaine's Mosheim, 
v. i. cent. iv. p. ii. c. iii. § 12. 2 That pleader.] In the fifth century, 

Paulus Orosius " acquired a considerable degree of reputation by the History 
he wrote to refute the cavils of the Pagans against Christianity, and by his 
books against the Pelagians and Priscillianists." Ibid. v. ii. cent. v. p. ii. 
c. ii. § 11. A similar train of argument was pursued by Augustine, in his 
book De Civitate Dei. Orosius is classed by Dante, in his treatise De Vulg. 
Eloq. Mb. ii. cap. vi. as one of his favourite authors, among those " qui usi 
sunt altissimas prosas," — " who have written prose with the greatest loftiness 
of style." The others are Cicero, Livy, Pliny, and Frontinus. Some com- 
mentators, with less probability, suppose that this seventh spirit is Saint 
Ambrose, and not Orosius. 3 The eighth.] Boetius, whose book De Con- 
solatione Philosophise excited so much attention during the middle ages, was 
born, as Tiraboschi conjectures, about 470. " In 524 he was cruelly put to death 
by command of Theodoric, either on real or pretended suspicion of his being 
engaged in a conspiracy." Delia Lett. Ital. torn. iii. lib. i. cap. iv. 

4 Cieldauro.] Boetius was buried at Pavia, in the monastery of St. 
Pietro in Ciel d'oro. b Isidore^ He was Archbishop of Seville during 

forty years, and died in 635. See Mariana, Hist. lib. vi. cap. vii. Mosheim, 
whose critical opinions in general must be taken with some allowance, ob- 
serves, that " his grammatical, theological, and historical productions, dis- 
cover more learning and pedantry than judgment and taste." 6 Bede.] 
Bede, whose virtues obtained him the appellation of the Yenerable, was born 



128—142. PARADISE, Canto X. (411) 

In deep discernment. Lastly this, from whom 

Thy look on me reverteth, was the beam 

Of one, whose spirit, on high musings bent, 

Rebuked the lingering tardiness of death. 

It is the eternal light of Sigebert l 

Who escaped not envy, when of truth he argued, 

Heading in the straw-litter'd street 2 ." Forthwith, 

As clock, that calleth up the spouse of God 3 

To win her bridegroom's love at matin's hour, 

Each part of other fitly drawn and urged, 

Sends out a tinkling sound, of note so sweet, 

Affection springs in well-disposed breast ; 

Thus saw I move the glorious wheel ; thus heard 

Voice answering voice, so musical and soft, 

It can be known but where day endless shines. 



CANTO XL 



ARGUMENT. 

Thomas Aquinas enters at large into the life and character of St. Francis ; 
and then solves one of two difficulties, which he perceived to have risen in 
Dante's mind from what he had heard is the last Canto. 

O fond anxiety of mortal men 4 ! 

How vain and inconclusive arguments 

Are those, which make thee beat thy wings below. 

in 672, at Wermouth and Jarrow, in the bishopric of Durham, and died in 
735. Invited to Rome.by Pope Sergius I. he preferred passing almost the 
whole of his life in the seclusion of a monastery. A catalogue of his nu- 
merous writings may be seen in Kippis's Biographia Britannica, v. ii. 
7 Richard.] Richard of St. Victor, a native either of Scotland or Ireland, 
was canon and prior of the monastery of that name at Paris ; and died in 
1173. " He was at the head of the Mystics in this century ; and his treatise, 
intitled the Mystical Ark, which contains as it were the marrow of this kind 
of theology, was received with the greatest avidity." Madeline's Mosheim, 
x. iii. cent. xii. p. ii. c. ii. § 23. 

1 Sigebert.'] " A monk of the abbey of Gemblours, who was in high re- 
pute at the end of the eleventh, and beginning of the twelfth century." 
Diet, de Moreri. 2 The straw-litter 'd street.] The name of a street in 
Paris: the "Rue de Fouarre." 3 The spouse of God.] The church. 
4 O fond anxiety of mortal men.] Lucretius, lib. ii. 14. 

O miseras hominum mentes ! pectora caeca ! 

Qualibus in tenebris vitae, quantisque periclis 

Degitur hoc aevi quodcunque est ! 



(412) THE VISION. 4—39. 

For statutes one, and one for aphorisms ! 

Was hunting ; this the priesthood follow'd ; that, 

By force or sophistry, aspired to rule ; 

To rob, another ; and another sought, 

By civil business, wealth ; one, moiling, lay 

Tangled in net of sensual delight ; 

And one to wistless indolence resign'd ; 

What time from all these empty things escaped, 

With Beatrice, I thus gloriously 

Was raised aloft, and made the guest of heaven. 

They of the circle to that point, each one, 
Where erst it was, had turn'd ; and steady glow'd, 
As candle in his socket. Then within 
The lustre 2 , that erewhile bespake me, smiling 
With merer gladness, heard I thus begin : 

" E'en as his beam illumes me, so I look 
Into the eternal light, and clearly mark 
Thy thoughts, from whence they rise. Thou art in doubt, 
And wouldst that I should bolt my words afresh 
In such plain open phrase, as may be smooth 
To thy perception, where I told thee late 
That 'well they thrive 3 ;' and that 'no second such 4 
Hath risen,' which no small distinction needs. 

" The Providence, that governeth the world, 
In depth of counsel by created ken 
Unfathomable, to the end that she 5 , 
Who with loud cries was 'spoused in precious blood, 
Might keep her footing towards her well-beloved 6 , 
Safe in herself and constant unto him, 
Hath two ordain'd, who should on either hand 
In chief escort her : one 7 , seraphic all 
In fervency ; for wisdom upon earth, 
The other 8 , splendour of cherubic light. 
I but of one will tell : he tells of both, 
Who one commendeth, which of them soe'er 
Be taken : for their deeds were to one end. 



1 Aphorisms.'] The study of medicine. 2 The lustre.'] The spirit of 
Thomas Aquinas. 3 That ' well they thrive.'] See the last Canto, v. 93. 
4 'No second such.'] See the last Canto, v. 111. 5 She.] The church. 
6 Her well-beloved.] Jesus Christ. ' One.] Saint Francis. s The 

other.] Saint Dominic. 



40— G3. PARADISE, Canto XI. (413) 

"Between Tupino 1 , and the wave that falls 
From blest Ubaldo's chosen hill, there hangs 
Rich slope of mountain high, whence heat and cold 2 
Are wafted through Perugia's eastern gate : 
And Nocera with Gualdo, in its rear, 
Mourn for their heavy yoke 3 . Upon that side, 
Where it doth break its steepness most, arose 
A sun upon the world, as duly this 
From Ganges doth : therefore let none, who speak 
Of that place, say Ascesi ; for its name 
"Were lamely so deliver'd; but the East 4 , 
To call things rightly, be it henceforth styled. 
He was not yet much distant from his rising, 
When his good influence ? gan to bless the earth. 
A dame 5 , to whom none openeth pleasure's gate 
More than to death, was, 'gainst his father's will 6 , 
His stripling choice : and he did make her his, 
Before the spiritual court 7 , by nuptial bonds, 
And in his father's sight : from day to day, 
Then loved her more devoutly. She, bereaved 
Of her first husband 8 , slighted and obscure, 
Thousand and hundred years and more, remain 'd 
Without a single suitor, till he came. 
Nor aught avail'd, that, with Amyclas 9 , she 



1 Tupino.] Thomas Aquinas proceeds to describe the birth-place of Saint 
Francis, between Tupino, a rivulet near Assisi, or Ascesi, where the saint 
was born in 1182, and Chiascio, a stream that rises in a mountain near 
Agobbio, chosen b)' Saint Ubaldo for the place of his retirement. 2 Heat 

and cold.] Cold from the snow, and heat from the reflection of the sun. 
3 Yoke.] Vellutello understands this of the vicinity of the mountain to 
Nocera and Gualdo ; and Venturi (as I have taken it) of the heavy imposi- 
tions laid on those places by the Perugians. For giogo, like the Latin 
jugum, will admit of either sense. 

4 The East.] This is the east, and Juliet is the sun. Shakspeare. 

5 A dame.] There is in the under church of St. Francis, at Assisi, a pic- 
ture painted by Giotto from this subject. It is considered one of the artist's 
best works. See Kugler's Hand-book of the History of Painting, translated 
by a lady. Lond. 1842. p. 48. 6 'Gainst his father's will.] In opposi- 
tion to the wishes of his natural father. 7 Before the spiritual court.] 
He made a vow of poverty in the presence of the bishop and of his natural 
father. 8 Her first husband.] Christ. 9 Amyclas.] Lucan makes 
Caesar exclaim, on witnessing the secure poverty of the fisherman Amyclas : — 

6 vita? tuta facultas 

Pauperis, angustique lares ! O munera nondum 
Intellecta deum ! quibus hoc contingere templis, 



(414) 



THE VISION. 



64—90. 



TTa5 found unmoved at rumour of his voice, 
'Who shook the world : nor aught her constant boldness 
Whereby with Christ she mounted on the cross. 
When Mary stay'd beneath. But not to deal 

Thus closely with thee longer, take at large 

The lovers' titles — Poverty and Francis. 

Their concord and glad looks, wonder and love, 

And sweet regard gave birth to holy thoughts, 

So much, that venerable Bernard 1 first 

Did bare his feet, and, in pursuit of peace 

So heavenly, ran, jet deem'd his footing slow. 

O hidden riches ! prolific good ! 

Egidius 2 bares him next, and next Sylvester 3 , 

And follow, both, the bridegroom : so the bride 

Can please them. Thenceforth goes he on his way, 

The father and the master, with his spouse, 

And with that family, whom now the cord 4 

Girt humbly : nor did abjectness of heart 

Weigh down his eyelids, for that he was son 

Of Pietro Bernardone 5 , and by men 

In wonderous sort despised. But royally 

His hard intention he to Innocent 6 

Set forth ; and, from him, first received the seal 

On his religion. Then, when numerous flock'd 

The tribe of lowly ones, that traced his steps, 

Whose marvelous life deservedly were sung 

In heights empyreal ; through Tlonorius' 7 hand 



Aut potuit muris, nullo trepidare tuinuitu, 
Caesarea pulsante maim ? Phars. lib. v. 531. 

happy poverty ! thou greatest good 

Bestow' d by heaven, but seldom, understood ! 

Here nor the cruel spoiler seeks his prey, 

Xor ruthless armies take their dreadful way, &c. Roice. 
A translation in prose of these lines is introduced by our Poet in his Convito. 
p. 170. l Bernard.'] Of Quintavalle ; one of the first followers of the 
saint. 2 Egidius.] The third of his disciples, who died in 1262. His work, 
entitled Verba Aurea. was published in 1534:, at Antwerp. See Lucas Wacl- 
dimrus, Ann ales Ordinis Minoris, p. 5. 3 Sylvester.] Another of his 
earliest associates. * Whom noic the cord.] Saint Francis bound his body 
with a cord, in sign that he considered it as a beast, and that it required, 
like a beast, to beled by a halter. 5 Pietro Bernardone.] A man in an 
humble station of life at Assisi. 6 Innocent.] Pope Innocent III. 

7 Honor ius.] His successor Honorius III., who granted certain privileges 
to the Franciscans. 



91—123. PARADISE, Canto XI. (415) 

A second crown, to deck their Guardian's virtues, 
Was by the eternal Spirit inwreathed : and when 
He had, through thirst of martyrdom, stood up 
In the proud Soldan's presence 1 , and there preach'd 
Christ and his followers, but found the race 
Unripen'd for conversion ; back once more 
He hasted, (not to intermit his toil,) 
And reap'd Ausonian lands. On the hard rock 2 , 
'Twixt Arno and the Tiber, he from Christ 
Took the last signet 3 , which his limbs two years 
Did carry. Then, the season come that he, 
Who to such good had destined him, was pleased 
To advance him to the meed, which he had earn'd 
By his self-humbling ; to his brotherhood, 
As their just heritage, he gave in charge 
His dearest lady 4 : and enjoin'd their love 
And faith to her ; and, from her bosom, will'd 
His goodly spirit should move forth, returning 
To its appointed kingdom ; nor would have 
His body 5 laid upon another bier. 

"Think now of one, who were a fit colleague 
To keep the bark of Peter, in deep sea, 
Helm'd to right point; and such our Patriarch 6 was. 
Therefore who follow him as he enjoins, 
Thou mayst be certain, take good lading in. 
But hunger of new viands tempts his flock 7 ; 
So that they needs into strange pastures wide 
Must spread them : and the more remote from him 
The stragglers wander, so much more they come 
Home, to the sheep-fold, destitute of milk. 
There are of them, in truth, who fear their harm, 
And to the shepherd cleave ; but these so few, 
A little stuff may furnish out their cloaks. 

1 In the proud Soldan's presence.'] The Soldan of Egypt, before whom 
Saint Frauds is said to have preached. 2 On the hard rock.] The moun- 
tain Alverna in the Apennine. 3 The last signet.] Alluding to the stig- 
mata, or marks resembling the wounds of Christ, said to have been found 
on the saint's body. 4 His dearest lady.] Poverty. b His body.] He 
forbad any funeral pomp to be observed at his burial ; and, as it is said, 
ordered that his remains should be deposited in a place where criminals 
were executed and interred. ° Our Patriarch.] Saint Dominic, to whose 
order Thomas Aquinas belonged. 7 His flock.] The Dominicans. 



(416) 



THE VISION. 



124—129. 



" Now, if my words be clear ; if thou have ta'en 
Good heed ; if that, which I have told, recal 
To mind ; thy wish may be in part fulfill'd : 
For thou wilt see the plant from whence they split l ; 
And he shall see, who girds him, what that means 2 , 
' That well they thrive, not swoln with vanity.' ' 



CANTO XII. 



ARGUMENT. 

A second circle of glorified souls encompasses the first. Buonaventura, who 
is one of them, celehrates the praises of Saint Dominic, and informs Dante 
who the other eleven are, that are in this second circle or garland. 

Soon as its final word the blessed flame 3 
Had raised for utterance, straight the holy mill 4 
Began to wheel ; nor yet had once revolved, 
Or e'er another, circling, compass' d it, 
Motion to motion, song to song, conjoining ; 
Song, that as much our muses doth excel, 
Our Syrens with their tuneful pipes, as ray 
Of primal splendour doth its faint reflex. 

As when, if Juno bid her handmaid forth, 
Two arches parallel, and trick' d alike, 
Span the thin cloud, the outer taking birth 
From that within (in manner of that voice 5 

1 The plant from ichence they split.] " The rule of their order, which 
the Dominicans neglect to observe." 2 And he shall see, who girds him, 
what that ?neans.] Lombardi, after the Nidobeatina edition, together with 
four MSS. reads " il correggiar," or M il coregier," which gives the sense 
that now stands in the text of this version. The Dominicans might be called 
" coreggieri," from their wearing a leathern girdle, as the Franciscans were 
called " cordiglieri," from their being girt with a cord. I had before followed 
the common reading, " il corregger ;" and translated the line according to 
Venturi's interpretation of it: — 

Nor miss of the reproof which that implies. 

3 The blessed flame. 1 Thomas Aquinas. 4 The holy mill.'] The circle 
of spirits. 5 In manner of that voice.] One rainbow giving back the 
image of the other, as sound is reflected by Echo, that nymph, who was 
melted away by her fondness for Narcissus, as vapour is melted by the sun. 
The reader will observe in the text not only a second and third simile within 
the first, but two mythological and one sacred allusion bound up together 
with the whole. Even after this accumulation of imagery, the two circles of 
spirits, by whom Beatrice and Dante were encompassed, are by a bold figure 
termed two garlands of never-fading roses. Indeed there is a fulness of 
splendour, even to prodigality, throughout the beginning of this Canto. 



»J 



13—34. PARADISE, Canto XII. (417) 

Whom love did melt away, as sun the mist) 

And they who gaze, presageful call to mind 

The compact, made with Noah, of the world 

No more to be o'erflow'd ; about us thus, 

Of sempiternal roses, bending, wreathed 

Those garlands twain ; and to the innermost 

E'en thus the external answer'd. When the footing 

And other great festivity, of song, 

And radiance, light with light accordant, each 

Jocund and blythe, had at their pleasure still'd, 

(E'en as the eyes, by quick volition moved, 

Are shut and raised together,) from the heart 

Of one l amongst the new lights 2 moved a voice, 

That made me seem 3 like needle to the star, 

In turning to its whereabout 4 ; and thus 

Began : " The love 5 , that makes me beautiful, 

Prompts me to tell of the other guide, for whom 

Such good of mine is spoken. Where one is, 

The other worthily should also be ; 

That as their warfare was alike, alike 

Should be their glory. Slow, and full of doubt, 

And with thin ranks, after its banner moved 

1 One.] Saint BuonaTentura, general of the Franciscan order, in which 
he effected some reformation ; and one of the most profound divines of his 
age. " He refused the archbishopric of York, which was offered him by 
Clement IV., but afterwards was prevailed on to accept the bishopric of 
Albano and a cardinal's hat. He was born at Bagnoregio or Bagnorea, in 
Tuscany, A. D. 1221, and died in 1274." Diet. Histor. par Chaudon et De- 
landine. Ed. Lyon. 1804. 2 Amongst the new lights.] In the circle that 
had newly surrounded the first. 3 That made me seem.] " That made 
me turn to it, as the magnetic needle does to the pole." 

4 To its whereabout.] Al suo dove. 

The very stones prate of my whereabout. Shakspeare, Macbeth, act ii. sc. 1 . 

5 The love.] By an act of mutual courtesy, Buonaventura, a Franciscan, is 
made to proclaim the praises of St. Dominic, as Thomas Aquinas, a Domini- 
can, has celebrated those of St. Francis ; and in like manner each blames 
the irregularities, not of the other's order, but of that to which himself be- 
longed. Even Macchiavelli, no great friend to the church, attributes the 
revival of Christianity to the influence of these two saints. " Quanto alle 
Sette, si vede ancora queste rinovazioni esser necessarie, per l'essempio della 
nostra Religione, la quale, se non fusse stata ritirata verso il suo principio da 
San Francesco e da San Domenico, sarebbe al tutto spenta." Discorsi sopra 
la prima Deca di T. Livto, lib. iii. c. 1. " As to sects, it is seen that these 
renovations are necessary, by the example of our religion, which, if it had 
not been drawn back to its principle by St. Francis and St. Dominic, would 
be entirely extinguished." 

2 E 



(416) THE VISION. 35—59. 

The army of Christ, (which it so dearly cost 

To reappoint.) when its imperial Head, 

"VYho reigneth ever, for the drooping host 

Did make provision, thorough grace alone, 

And not through its deserving. As thou heard'st *, 

Two champions to the succour of his spouse 

He sent, who by their deeds and words might join 

Again his scatter'd people. In that clime 2 

TVhere springs the pleasant west-wind to unfold 

The fresh leaves, with which Europe sees herself 

New-garmented; nor from those billows 3 far, 

Beyond whose chiding, after weary course. 

The sun doth sometimes 4 hide him ; safe abides 

The happy Callaroga 5 . under guard 

Of the great shield, wherein the lion lies 

Subjected and supreme. And there was born 

The loving minion of the Christian faith 6 , 

The hallow'd wrestler, gentle" to his own, 

And to his enemies terrible. So replete 

His soul with lively virtue, that when first 

Created, even in the mother's womb 8 , 

It prophesied. TThen. at the sacred font. 

The spousals were complete 'twixt faith and him, 

TThere pledge of mutual safety was exchanged, 

The dame 9 , who was his surety, in her sleep 

1 As thou heard'st] See the last Canto, t. 33. ■ In that dime.} 

Spain. 3 Those billoics.] The Atlantic 4 Sometimes.] During the 
summer solstice. 5 Callaroga .] Between Osma and Aranda, in Old Cas- 
tile designated by the royal coat of arms. 6 The loving minion of the 
Christian faith.] Dominic was born April 5, 1170. and died August 6. 1221. 
His birth-place Callaroga ; his father and mother's names. Felix and Joanna ; 
his mother's dream ; his name of Dominic, given him in consequence of a 
vision by a noble matron who stood sponsor to him. are all told in an anonym- 
ous life of the saint, said to be written in the thirteenth century, and published 
by Quetif and Echard, Scriptores Ordinis Pi^aedicatorum, Par. 1719, fol. torn. 
i. p. 25. These writers deny his having been an inquisitor, and indeed the 
establishment of the inquisition itself before the fourth Lateran Council. 
Ibid. p. 88. 

7 Gentle.] Baoziav kjfiptns, m cpiXoiaiv evuevtj. Eurip. Medea, v. 805. 
Lofty and sour to those, that loved him not, 
But to those men, that sought him, sweet as summer. 

Shak-STieare, Henry V. : iv. sc. 2. 

s In the mother's wo?nb.] His mother, when pregnant with him. is said 
to have dreamt that she should bring forth a white and black dog with a 
lighted torch in his mouth, which were signs of the habit to be v 
his order, and of his fervent zeal. 9 "The dame.] His godmother's 



60—81. PARADISE, Canto XII. (419) 

Beheld the wondrous fruit, that was from him 

And from his heirs to issue. And that such 

He might be construed, as indeed he was, 

She was inspired to name him of his owner, 

Whose he was wholly ; and so call'd him Dominic. 

And I speak of him, as the labourer, 

Whom Christ in his own garden chose to be 

His help-mate. Messenger he seem'd, and friend 

Fast-knit to Christ ; and the first love he show'd, 

Was after the first counsel l that Christ gave. 

Many a time 2 his nurse, at entering, found 

That he had risen in silence, and was prostrate, 

As who should say, ' My errand was for this.' 

O happy father ! Felix 3 rightly named. 

O favour'd mother ! rightly named Joanna ; 

If that do mean, as men interpret it 4 . 

Not for the world's sake, for which now they toil 

Upon Ostiense 5 and Taddeo's 6 lore, 

But for the real manna, soon he grew 

Mighty in learning ; and did set himself 

To go about the vineyard, that soon turns 

To wan and wither'd, if not tended well : 

dream was, that he had one star in his forehead and another in the nape 
of his neck, from which he communicated light to the east and the west. 
1 After the first counsel.] " Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, 
go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure 
in heaven; and come and follow me." Matth. xix. 21. Dominic is said to 
have followed this advice. 2 Many a time.] His nurse, when she returned 
to him, often found that he had left his bed, and was prostrate, and in prayer. 
:i Felix.] Felix Gusman. 4 As men interpret it.] Grace or gift of the 

Lord. 5 Ostiense.] Arrigo, a native of Susa, formerly a considerable city 
in Piedmont, and cardinal of Ostia and Velletri, whence he acquired the 
name of Ostiense, was celebrated for his lectures on the five books of the De- 
cretals. He nourished about the year 1250. He is classed by Frezzi with 
Accorso the Florentine. 

Poi Ostiense, e'l Fiorentino Accorso, 
Che fe le chiose, e dichiaro '1 mio testo, 
E alle leggi diede gran soccorso. II Quadrir. lib. iv. cap. 13. 
6 Taddeo.] It is uncertain whether he speaks of the physician or the lawyer 
of that name. The former, Taddeo d'Alderotto, a Florentine, called the 
Hippocratean, translated the ethics of Aristotle into Latin ; and died at an 
advanced age towards the end of the thirteenth century. The other, who 
was of Bologna and celebrated for his legal knowledge, left no writings be- 
hind him. He is also spoken of by Frezzi : 

Azzo e Taddeo gia fanno li maggiori ; 

E ora ognun' e oscuro, e tal appare 

Qual' e la luna alii febei splendori. II Quadrir. lib. iv. cap. 13. 

2 e 2 



(420) THE VISION. 82—111. 

And from the see 1 (whose bounty to the just 

And needy is gone by, not through its fault, 

But his who nils it basely) he besought, 

No dispensation 2 for commuted wrong, 

Nor the first vacant fortune 3 , nor the tenths 

That to God's paupers rightly appertain, 

But, 'gainst an erring and degenerate world, 

Licence to fight, in favour of that seed 4 

From which the twice twelve cions gird thee round. 

Then, with sage doctrine and good will to help, 

Forth on his great apostleship he fared, 

Like torrent bursting from a lofty vein ; 

And, dashing 'gainst the stocks of heresy, 

Smote fiercest, where resistance was most stout. 

Thence many rivulets have since been turn'd, . 

Over the garden catholic to lead 

Their living waters, and have fed its plants. 

"If such, one wheel 5 of that two-yoked car, 
Wherein the holy church defended her, 
And rode triumphant through the civil broil ; 
Thou canst not doubt its fellow's excellence, 
Which Thomas 6 , ere my coming, hath declared 
So courteously unto thee. But the track 7 , 
Which its smooth fellies made, is now deserted : 
That, mouldy mother is, where late were lees. 
His family, that wont to trace his path, 
Turn backward, and invert their steps ; erelong 
To rue the gathering in of their ill crop, 
When the rejected tares 8 in vain shall ask 
Admittance to the barn. I question not 9 

1 The see.] " The apostolic see, which no longer continues its wonted 
liberality towards the indigent and deserving ; not indeed through its own 
fault, as its doctrines are still the same, but through the fault of the pontiff, 
who is seated in it." 2 No dispensation.] Dominic did not ask licence 
to compound for the use of unjust acquisitions by dedicating a part of them 
to pious purposes. 3 Xor the first vacant fortune.] Not the first benefice 
that fell vacant. 4 In favour of that seed.] " For that seed of the divine 
word, from which have sprung up these four and twenty plants, these holy 
spirits that now environ thee." 5 One wheel.] Dominie ; as the other 
wheel is Francis. 6 Tho??ws.] Thomas Aquinas. 7 But the track.] 

" But the rule of St. Francis is already deserted : and the lees of the wine 
are turned into mouldiness." 8 Tares.] He adverts to the parable of the 
tares and the wheat. ° I question not.] " Some indeed might be found, 

who still observe the rule of the order : but such would come neither from 



112—126. PARADISE, Canto XII. (421) 

But he, who search'd our volume, leaf by leaf, 

Might still find page with this inscription on't, 

6 1 am as I was wont.' Yet such were not 

From Acquasparta nor Casale, whence, 

Of those who come to meddle with the text, 

One stretches and another cramps its rule. 

Bonaventura's life in me behold, 

From Bagnoregio ; one, who, in discharge 

Of my great offices, still laid aside 

All sinister aim. Illuminato here, 

And Agostino 1 join me : two they were, 

Among the first of those barefooted meek ones, 

Who sought God's friendship in the cord : with them 

Hugues of Saint Victor 2 ; Pietro Mangiadore 3 ; 

And he of Spain 4 in his twelve volumes shining ; 

Casale nor Acquasparta." At Casale, in Monferrat, the discipline had been 
enforced by Uberto with unnecessary rigour ; and at Acquasparta, in the 
territory of Todi, it had been equally relaxed by the Cardinal Matteo, general 
of the order. Lucas TVaddingus, as cited by Lombardi, corrects the errors 
of the commentators who had confounded these two. 

1 Illuminato here, 

And Agostino.'] Two among the earliest followers of St. Francis. 

2 Hugues of St. Victor.] Landino makes him of Pavia ; Venturi calls 
him a Saxon ; and Lombardi, following Alexander Natalis, Hist. Eccl. Saec. 
xi. cap. 6. art. 9, says that he was from Ypres. He was of the monastery of 
Saint Victor at Paris, and died in 1142, at the age of forty-four. His ten 
books, illustrative of the celestial hierarchy of Dionysius the Areopagite, ac- 
cording to the translation of Joannes Scotus, are inscribed to King Louis, 
son of Louis le Gros, by whom the monastery had been founded. Opera 
Hug. de S. Vict. fol. Paris, 1526, torn. i. 329. " A man distinguished by the 
fecundity of his genius, who treated, in his writings, of all the branches of 
sacred and profane erudition that were known in his time, and who composed 
several dissertations that are not destitute of merit." Madeline's Mosheim, 
Eccl. Hist. v. iii. cent. xii. p. ii. c. ii. § 23. I have looked into his writings, and 
found some reason for this high eulogium. 3 Pietro Mangiadore.] " Pe- 
trus Comestor, or the Eater, born at Troves, was canon and dean of that 
church, and afterwards chancellor of the church of Paris. He relinquished 
these benefices to become a regular canon of St. Victor at Paris, where he 
died in 1198." Chaudon et Delandine, Diet. Hist. Ed. Lyon. 1804. The 
work, by which he is best known, is his Historia Scolastica, which I shall 
have occasion to cite in the Notes to Canto xxvi. 4 He of Spain.] " To 
Pope Adrian V. succeeded John XXI. a native of Lisbon ; a man of great 
genius and extraordinary acquirements, especially in logic and in medicine, 
as his books written in the name of Peter of Spain (by which he was known 
before he became Pope) may testify. His life was not much longer than 
that of his predecessors, for he was killed at Viterbo, by the falling in of the 
roof of his chamber, after he had been pontiff only eight months and as many 
days," A. D. 1277. Mariana, Hist, de Esp. 1. xiv. c. 2. His Thesaurus 
Pauperum is referred to in Brown's Vulgar Errors, B. vii. ch. 7. 



(422) THE VISION. 127—135. 

Nathan the prophet ; Metropolitan 

Chrysostom l ; and Anselmo 2 ; and, who deign'd 

To put his hand to the first art, Donatus 3 . 

Raban 4 is here ; and at my side there shines 

Calabria's abbot, Joachim 5 , endow'd 

With soul prophetic. The bright courtesy 

Of friar Thomas and his goodly lore, 

Have moved me to the blazon of a peer 6 

So worthy ; and with me have moved this throng." 

CANTO xin. 



ARGUMENT. 

Thomas Aquinas resumes his speech. He solves the other of those doubts 
which he discerned in the mind of Dante, and warns him earnestly against 
assenting to any proposition without haying duly examined it. 

Let him 7 , who would conceive what now I saw, 
Imagine, (and retain the image firm 

1 Chrysostom.] The eloquent patriarch of Constantinople. 2 Anselmo.] 
" Ansehn, Archbishop of Canterbury, was bom at Aosta, about 1034, and 
studied under Lanfranc, at the monastery of Bee in Norcnandy, where he 
afterwards devoted himself to a religious life, in his twenty-seventh year. In 
three years he was made prior, and then abbot of that monastery : from 
whence he was taken, in 1093, to succeed to the archbishopric, vacant by the 
death of Lanfranc. He enjoyed this dignity till his death, in 1109, though it 
was disturbed by many dissensions with William II. and Henry I. respecting 
immunities and investitures. There is much depth and precision in his 
theological works." TiraboschL Stor. della Lett. Ital. torn. iii. Kb. iv. cap. 2. 
Ibid. c. v. " It is an observation made by many modern writers, that the 
demonstration of the existence of God, taken from the idea of a Supreme Be- 
ing, of which Des Cartes is thought to be the author, was so many ages back 
discovered and brought to light by Anselni. Leibnitz himself makes the re- 
mark, vol. v. Oper.^p. 570." Edit. Genev. 1768." 3 Donatus.] JElius 
Donatus, the grammarian, in the fourth century, one of the preceptors of St. 
Jerome. So Fazio degli Uberti, Dittamondo, lib. ii. cap. 13. 
In quest o tempo Donato vivea, 
Che delle arti in si breve volume 
L'uscio n'aperse e la prima scalea. 

4 Rahan.'] " He was made Archbishop of Mentz in 847. His Latino- 
Theotische Glossary of the Bible is still preserved in the imperial library at 
Vienna. See Lambesius, Comment, de Bibl. lib. ii. p. 416 and 932." Grai/s 
Works, 4to. Lond. 1814, vol. ii. p. 33. M Rabanus Maurus, Archbishop of 
!Mentz, is deservedly placed at the head of the Latin writers of this age." 
Mosheim, v. ii. cent. ix. p. ii. c. ii. £ 14. 5 Joachim.] Abbot of Flora in 
Calabria ; M whom the multitude revered as a person divinely inspired, and 
equal to the most illustrious prophets of ancient times." Mosheim, v. iii. 
cent. xiii. p. ii. c. ii. § 33. 6 A peer.] St. Dominic. 

7 Let him.] M Whoever would conceive the sight that now presented it- 



3—34. PARADISE, Canto XIII. (423) 

As mountain rock, the whilst he hears me speak,) 

Of stars, fifteen, from midst the ethereal host 

Selected, that, with lively ray serene, 

O'ercome the massiest air : thereto imagine 

The wain, that, in the bosom of our sky, 

Spins ever on its axle night and day, 

With the bright summit of that horn, which swells 

Due from the pole, round which the first wheel rolls, 

To have ranged themselves in fashion of two signs 

In heaven, such as Ariadne made, 

When death's chill seized her ; and that one of them 

Did compass in the other's beam ; and both 

In such sort whirl around, that each should tend 

With opposite motion : and, conceiving thus, 

Of that true constellation, and the dance 

Twofold, that circled me, he shall attain 

As 'twere the shadow ; for things there as much 

Surpass our usage, as the swiftest heaven 

Is swifter than the Chiana 1 . There was sung 

No Bacchus, and no Io Paean, but 

Three Persons in the Godhead, and in one 

Person that nature and the human join'd. 

The song and round were measured : and to us 
Those saintly lights attended, happier made 
At each new ministering. Then silence brake 
Amid the accordant sons of Deity, 
That luminary 2 , in which the wondrous life 
Of the meek man of God 3 was told to me ; 
And thus it spake : " One ear 4 o' the harvest thresh'd, 
And its grain safely stored, sweet charity 
Invites me with the other to like toil. 

" Thou know'st, that in the bosom 5 , whence the rib 

self to me, must imagine to himself fifteen of the "brightest stars in heaven, 
together with seven stars of Arc turns Major and two of Arctums Minor, 
ranged in two circles, one within the other, each resembling the crown of 
Ariadne, and moving round in opposite directions." l The Chiana.~\ 

See Hell, Canto xxix. 45. 2 That luminary. "\ Thomas Aquinas. 

3 The meek man of God. ] Saint Francis. See Canto xi. 25. * One ear.~\ 
" Having solved one of thy questions, I proceed to answer the other. 
Thou thinkest then that Adam and Christ were both endued with all the 
perfection of which the human nature is capable ; and therefore wonderest 
at what has been said concerning Solomon." 5 In the bosom. ,] " Thou 
knowest that in the breast of Adam, whence the rib was taken to make that 



(424) THE VISION. 35—62. 

Was ta'en to fashion that fair cheek, whose taste 

All the world pays for ; and in that, which pierced 

By the keen lance, both after and before 

Such satisfaction offer'd as outweighs 

Each evil in the scale ; whate'er of light 

To human nature is allow'd, must all 

Have by his virtue been infused, who form'd 

Both one and other : and thou thence admirest 

In that I told thee, of beatitudes, 

A second there is none to him enclosed 

In the fifth radiance. Open now thine eyes 

To what I answer thee : and thou shalt see 

Thy deeming and my saying meet in truth, 

As centre in the round. That l which dies not, 

And that which can die, are but each the beam 

Of that idea, which our Sovereign Sire 

Engendereth loving ; for that lively light 2 , 

Which passeth from his splendour, not disjoin'd 

From him, nor from his love triune with them 3 , 

Doth, through his bounty, congregate itself, 

Mirror' d, as 'twere, in new existences 4 ; 

Itself unalterable, and ever one. 

" Descending hence unto the lowest powers 5 , 
Its energy so sinks, at last it makes 
But brief contingencies ; for so I name 
Things generated, which the heavenly orbs 
Moving, with seed or without seed, produce. 
Their wax, and that which molds it 6 , differ much : 

fair cheek of Eve, which, by tasting the apple, brought death into the 
world ; and also in the breast of Christ, which, being pierced by the lance, 
made satisfaction for the sins of the whole world ; as much wisdom resided, 
as human nature was capable of : and thou dost therefore wonder that I 
should have spoken of Solomon as the wisest." See Canto x. 105. 

1 That.] " Things, corruptible and incorruptible, are only emanations 
from the archetypal idea residing in the Divine Mind." 2 Light.] The 
Word : the Son of God. 3 His love triune with them.] The Holy Ghost. 
4 New existences.] Angels and human souls. If we read with some editions 
and many MSS. " nove " instead of " nuove," it should be rendered " nine 
existences," and then means "the nine heavens ; " and this reading is ap- 
proved by Lombardi, Biagioli, and Monti. In the terms " sussistenze " and 
" contingenze," " existences and contingencies," Dante follows the language 
of the scholastic writers, which I have endeavoured to preserve. 5 The 
lowest powers .] Irrational life and brute matter. 6 Their wax, and that 
which molds it.] Matter, and the virtue or energy that acts on it. 



63—92. PARADISE, Canto XIII. (425) 

And thence with lustre, more or less, it shows 
The ideal stamp imprest : so that one tree, 
According to his kind, hath better fruit, 
And worse : and, at your birth, ye, mortal men, 
Are in your talents various. Were the wax 
Molded with nice exactness, and the heaven * 
In its disposing influence supreme, 
The brightness of the seal 2 should be complete : 
But nature renders it imperfect ever ; 
Resembling thus the artist, in her work, 
Whose faltering hand is faithless to his skill. 
Therefore 3 , if fervent love dispose, and mark 
The lustrous image of the primal virtue, 
There all perfection is vouchsafed ; and such 
The clay 4 was made, accomplished with each gift, 
That life can teem with ; such the burden fill'd 
The virgin's bosom : so that I commend 
Thy judgment, that the human nature ne'er 
Was, or can be, such as in them it was. 

" Did I advance no further than this point ; 
' How then had he no peer ?' thou might' st reply. 
But, that what now appears not, may appear 
Eight plainly, ponder, who he was, and what 
(When he was bidden c Ask ') the motive, sway'd 
To his requesting. I have spoken thus, 
That thou mayst see, he was a king, who ask'd 5 
For wisdom, to the end he might be king 
Sufficient : not, the number 6 to search out 
Of the celestial movers ; or to know, 
If necessary 7 with contingent e'er 

1 The heaven.] The influence of the planetary bodies. 2 The bright- 
ness of the seal.] The brightness of the Divine idea before spoken of. 
3 Therefore.'] Daniello, says Lombardi, has shown his sagacity in remark- 
ing that our Poet intends this for a brief description of the Trinity : the primal 
virtue signifying the Father ; the lustrous image, the Son ; the fervent love, 
the Holy Ghost. 4 The clay.] Adam. 5 Who ask'd.] " He did not 
desire to know the number of the celestial intelligences, or to pry into the 
subtleties of logical, metaphysical, or mathematical science : but asked for 
that wisdom which might fit him for his kingly office." 6 The number.] 
This question is discussed by our Poet himself in the Convito, p. 49. 7 Tf 
necessary.] "If a premise necessarily true, with one not necessarily true, 
ever produced a necessary consequence : a question resolved in the negative 
by the art of logic, with that general rule, conclusio sequitur debiliorem 
partem." Lombardi. 



(426) THE VISION. 93—121. 

Have made necessity ; or whether that 
Be granted, that first motion x is ; or if, 
Of the mid circle 2 , can by art be made 
Triangle, with its corner blunt or sharp. 

" Whence, noting that, which I have said, and this, 
Thou kingly prudence and that ken 3 mayst learn, 
At which the dart of my intention aims. 
And, marking clearly, that I told thee, ' Risen,' 
Thou shalt discern it only hath respect 
To kings, of whom are many, and the good 
Are rare. With this distinction take my words ; 
And they may well consist with that which thou 
Of the first human father dost believe, 
And of our well-beloved. And let this 
Henceforth be lead unto thy feet, to make 
Thee slow in motion, as a weary man, 
Both to the ' yea ' and to the ' nay ' thou seest not. 
For he among the fools is down full low, 
Whose affirmation, or denial 4 , is 
Without distinction, in each case alike. 
Since it befals, that in most instances 
Current opinion leans to false : and then 
Affection bends the judgment to her ply. 

" Much more than vainly doth he loose from shore, 
Since he returns not such as he set forth, 
Who fishes for the truth and wanteth skill. 
And open proofs of this unto the world 
Have been afforded in Parmenides, , 
Melissus, Bryso 5 , and the crowd beside, 

1 That first motion.} " If we must allow one first motion, which is not 
caused by other motion : a question resolved affirmatively by metaphysics, ac- 
cording to that principle, repugnat in causis processus in infinitum." Lom- 
bards. 2 Of the mid circle] " If in the half of the circle a rectilinear 
triangle can be described, one side of which shall be the diameter of the same 
circle, without its forming a right angle with the other two sides ; which geo- 
metry shows to be impossible." Lo?nbardi. 3 That ken.] See Canto x. 110. 
4 Whose affirmation, or denial?^ Twi; yap apTi ^EivoTEpa av tis o/jloXo- 
yrj<T£L£, /mi] Trpocrywv tois pijp.a<TL tou vovv, ?/ tottoXv Eidia/jLEda (pavai te kol 
dirapvElaQai. Plato, Theaetetus, Ed. Bip. V. ii. p. 97- " For any one might 
make yet absurder concessions than these, not paying strict attention to 
terms, according to the way, in which we are for the most part accustomed 
both to affirm and to deny." 

5 Parmenides, 

Melissus, Bryso.] For the singular opinions entertained by the two 



122—137. PARADISE, Canto XIII. (427) 

Who journey 'd on, and knew not whither : so did 
Sabellius, Arius l 3 and the other fools, 
Who, like to scyniitars 2 , reflected back 
The scripture-image by distortion marr'd. 

"Let not the people be too swift to judge ; 
As one who reckons on the blades in field, 
Or e'er the crop be ripe. For I have seen 
The thorn frown rudely all the winter long, 
And after bear the rose upon its top ; 
And bark, that all her way across the sea 
Ran straight and speedy, perish at the last 
E'en in the haven's mouth. Seeing one steal, 
Another bring his offering to the priest, 
Let not 3 Dame Birtha and Sir Martin 4 thence 
Into heaven's counsels deem that they can pry : 
For one of these may rise, the other fall." 

CANTO XIV. 



ARGUMENT. 

Solomon, who is one of the spirits in the inner circle, declares what the ap- 
pearance of the blest will be after the resurrection of the body. Beatrice 
and Dante are translated into the fifth heaven, which is that of Mars ; and 
here behold the sonls of those, who had died fighting for the true faith, 
ranged in the sign of a cross, athwart which the spirits move to the sound 
of a melodious hymn. 

From centre to the circle, and so back 
From circle tQ the centre, water moves 

former of these heathen philosophers, see Diogenes Laertius, lib. ix. and 
Aristot. de Ccelo, lib. iii. cap. i. and Phys. lib. i. cap. ii. The last is also 
twice adduced by Aristotle (Anal. Post. lib. i. cap. ix. and Rhet. lib. iii. 
cap. ii.) as affording instances of false reasoning. Our Poet refers to the 
philosopher's refutation of them in the De Monarchic, lib. iii. p. 138. See 
also Plato in the Thesetetus, the Sophist, and the Parmenides. | Sabel- 

lius, Arius.] Well-known heretics. 2 Scymitars.] A passage in the 

travels of Bertradon de la Brocquiere, translated by Mr. Johnes, will ex- 
plain this allusion, which has given some trouble to the commentators. 
That traveller, who wrote before Dante, informs us, p. 138, that the wan- 
dering Arabs used their scymitars as mirrors. 3 Let not.] " Let not short- 
sighted mortals presume to decide on the future doom of any man, from a 
consideration of his present character and actions." This is meant as an an- 
swer to the doubts entertained respecting the salvation of Solomon. See 
Canto x. 107. 4 Dame Birtha and Sir Martin.] Names put generally 

for any persons who have more curiosity than discretion. 



(428) THE VISION. 3—35. 

In the round chalice, even as the blow 

Impels it, inwardly, or from without. 

Such was the image ! glanced into my mind, 

As the great spirit of Aquinum ceased ; 

And Beatrice, after him, her words 

Resumed alternate : " Need there is (though yet 

He tells it to you not in words, nor e'en 

In thought) that he should fathom to its depth 

Another mystery. Tell him, if the light, 

Wherewith your substance blooms, shall stay with you 

Eternally, as now ; and, if it doth, 

How, when 2 ye shall regain your visible forms, 

The sight may without harm endure the change, 

That also tell." As those, who in a ring 

Tread the light measure, in their fitful mirth 

Raise loud the voice, and spring with gladder bound ; 

Thus, at the hearing of that pious suit, 

The saintly circles, in their tourneying 

And wondrous note, attested new delight. 

Whoso laments, that we must doff this garb 
Of frail mortality, thenceforth to live 
Immortally above ; he hath not seen 
The sweet refreshing of that heavenly shower 3 . 

Him 4 , who lives ever, and for ever reigns 
In mystic union of the Three in One, 
Unbounded, bounding all, each spirit thrice 
Sang, with such melody, as, but to hear, 
For highest merit were an ample meed. 
And from the lesser orb the goodliest light 5 , 
With gentle voice and mild, such as perhaps 
The angel's once to Mary, thus replied : 
"Long as the joy of Paradise shall last, 
Our love shall shine around that raiment, bright 

1 Such was the image.] The voice of Thomas Aquinas proceeding from 
the circle to the centre ; and that of Beatrice, from the centre to the circle. 
2 When.] When ye shall be again clothed with your bodies at the resur- 
rection. 3 That heavenly shower.] That effusion of beatific light. 

4 Him.] Literally translated by Chaucer, Troilus and Cresseide, book v. 

Thou one, two, and three eterne on live, 
That raignest aie in three, two, and one, 
Uncircumscript, and all maist circonscrive. 

5 The goodliest light.] Solomon. 



36—76. PARADISE, Canto XIV. (429) 

As fervent ; fervent as, in vision, blest ; 

And that as far, in blessedness, exceeding, 

As it hath grace, beyond its virtue, great. 

Our shape, regarmented with glorious weeds 

Of saintly flesh, must, being thus entire, 

Show yet more gracious. Therefore shall increase 

Whate'er, of light, gratuitous imparts 

The Supreme Good ; light, ministering aid, 

The better to disclose his glory : whence, 

The vision needs increasing, must increase 

The fervour, which it kindles ; and that too 

The ray, that comes from it. But as the gleed 

Which gives out flame, yet in its whiteness shines 

More livelily than that, and so preserves 

Its proper semblance ; thus this circling sphere 

Of splendour shall to view less radiant seem, 

Than shall our fleshly robe, which yonder earth 

Now covers. Nor will such excess of light 

O'erpower us, in corporeal organs made 

Firm, and susceptible of all delight." 

So ready and so cordial an " Amen" 
Follow'd from either choir, as plainly spoke 
Desire of their dead bodies ; yet perchance 
Not for themselves, but for their kindred dear, 
Mothers and sires, and those whom best they loved, 
Ere they were made imperishable flame. 

And lo ! forthwith there rose up round about 
A lustre, over that already there ; 
Of equal clearness, like the brightening up 
Of the horizon. As at evening hour 
Of twilight, new appearances through heaven 
Peer with faint glimmer, doubtfully descried ; 
So, there, new substances, methought, began 
To rise in view beyond the other twain, 
And wheeling, sweep their ampler circuit wide. 

O genuine glitter of eternal Beam ! 
With what a sudden whiteness did it flow, 
O'erpowering vision in me. But so fair, 
So passing lovely, Beatrice show'd, 
Mind cannot follow it, nor words express 
Her infinite sweetness. Thence mine eyes regain'd 



(430) THE VISION. 77—98. 

Power to look up ; and I beheld myself, 
Sole with my lady, to more lofty bliss l 
Translated : for the star, with warmer smile 
Impurpled, well denoted our ascent. 

With all the heart, and with that tongue which speaks 
The same in all, an holocaust I made 
To God, befitting the new grace vouchsafed. 
And from my bosom had not yet upsteam'd 
The fuming of that incense, when I knew 
The rite accepted. TTith such mighty sheen 
And mantling crimson, in two listed rays 
The splendours shot before me, that I cried, 
" God of Sabaoth ! that dost prank them thus !" 

As leads the galaxy from pole to pole, 
Distinguish'd into greater lights and less. 
Its pathway 2 , which the wisest fail to spell ; 
So thickly studded, in the depth of Mars, 
Those rays described the venerable sign 3 , 
That quadrants in the round conjoining frame. 

Here memory mocks the toil of genius. Christ 
Beam'd on that cross ; and pattern fails me now. 
But whoso takes his cross, and follows Christ, 



1 To more lofty 'bliss.] To the planet Mars. 2 Its pathway .] Seethe 
Convito, p. 74. "' E da sapere. &c." " It must be known, that, concerning 
the galaxy, philosophers have entertained different opinions. The Pythago- 
reans say that the sun once wandered out of his way ; and passing through 
other parts not suited to his heat, scorched the place through which he 
passed ; and that there was left that appearance of the scorching. I think 
they grounded their opinion on the fable of Phaeton, which Ovid relates at 
the beginning of his Metamorphoses. Others (as Anaxagoras and Deniocri- 
tus) said that it proceeded from a partial repercussion of the solar light, 
which they proved by such reasons as they could bring to demonstrate it. 
T\ Tiat Aristotle has said, cannot well be known : because his meaning is not 
made the same in one translation as in another : and I think it must have 
been an error in the translators ; for, in the new, he seems to say that it is a 
collection of vapours under the stars, which they always attract in that part ; 
and this appears devoid of any true reason. In the old, he says that the 
galaxy is nothing else than a multitude of fixed stars in that part, so small, 
that here below we cannot distinguish them : but that they form the appear- 
ance of that whiteness, which we call the galaxy. And it may be, that the 
heaven in that part is dense, and therefore retains and represents that light ; 
and in this opinion Avicen and Ptolemy seem to agree with Aristotle." M. 
Letronne's remarks on this passage of the Convito, inserted in M. Artaud's 
Histoire de Dante, (8°. Par. 1S4T p. 157,) are worth consulting. 3 The 
venerable sign.'] The cross, which is placed in the planet of Mars, to denote 
the glory of those who fought in the crusades. 



99—130. PARADISE, Canto XIV. (431) 

"Will pardon me for that I leave untold, 
When in the flecker'd dawning he shall spy 
The glitterance of Christ. From horn to horn, 
And 'tween the summit and the base, did move 
Lights, scintillating, as they met and pass'd. 
Thus oft are seen with ever-changeful glance, 
Straight or athwart, now rapid and now slow, 
The atomies of bodies \ long or short, 
To move along the sunbeam, whose slant line 
Checkers the shadow interposed by art 
Asrainst the noontide heat. And as the chime 
Of minstrel music, dulcimer, and harp 
With many strings, a pleasant dinning makes 
To him, who heareth not distinct the note ; 
So from the lights, which there appear'd to me, 
Gather'd along the cross a melody, 
That, indistinctly heard, with ravishment 
Possess'd me. Yet I mark'd it was a hymn 
Of lofty praises ; for there came to me 
"Arise," and "Conquer," as to one who hears 
And comprehends not. Me such ecstasy 
O'ercame, that never, till that hour, was thing 
That held me in so sweet imprisonment. 
Perhaps my saying overbold appears, 
Accounting less the pleasure of those eyes, 
Whereon to look fulfilleth all desire. 
But he 2 , who is aware those living seals 
Of every beauty work with quicker force, 
The higher they are risen ; and that there 
I had not turn'd me to them ; he may well 
Excuse me that, whereof in my excuse 
I do accuse me, and may own my truth ; 



1 The atomies of bodies.'] 

As thick as motes in the sun-beame. Chaucer, Edit. 1603, fol. 35. 

As thick and nnmberless, 
As the gay motes that people the snnbeam. Milton, II Penseroso. 
- He.] " He, who considers that the eyes of Beatrice became more radiant 
the higner we ascended, must not wonder that I do not except even them, 
as I had not yet beheld them since our entrance into this planet." Lom- 
bardi understands, by "living seals," " vivi suggelli," "the stars;" and 
this explanation derives some authority from the Latin notes on the Monte 
Casino MS. " id est coeli imprimentes ut sigilla." 



(432) THE VISION. 131, 132. 

That holy pleasure here not yet reveal'd *, 
Which grows in transport as we mount aloof. 



CANTO XV. 



ARGUMENT. 

The spirit of Cacciaguida, our Poet's ancestor, glides rapidly to the foot of 
the cross ; tells who he is ; and speaks of the simplicity of the Florentines 
in his days, since then much corrupted. 

True love, that ever shows itself as clear 

In kindness, as loose appetite in wrong, 

Silenced that lyre harmonious, and still' d 

The sacred chords, that are by heaven's right hand 

Unwound and tighten'd. How to righteous prayers 

Should they not hearken, who, to give me will 

For praying, in accordance thus were mute ? 

He hath in sooth good cause for endless grief, 

Who, for the love of thing that lasteth not, 

Despoils himself for ever of that love. 

As oft along the still and pure serene, 
At nightfal, glides a sudden trail of fire, 
Attracting with involuntary heed 
The eye to follow it, erewhile at rest ; 
And seems some star that shifted place in heaven 2 , 
Only that, whence it kindles, none is lost, 
And it is soon extinct : thus from the horn, 
That on the dexter of the cross extends, 
Down to its foot, one luminary ran 
From mid the cluster shone there ; yet no gem 
Dropp'd from its foil : and through the beamy list, 

1 Reveal* d.~] Dischiuso. Lombard! explains this word "excluded," as 
indeed Vellutello had done before him ; and as it is also used in the seventh 
Canto. If this interpretation were adopted, the line should stand thus : — 

That holy pleasure not excluded here. 
But the word is capable of either meaning ; and it would not be easy to 
determine which is the right, in this passage. 

2 And seems some star that shifted place in heaven. ~\ 

Pare una stella che tramuti loco. Frezzi, H Quadrir. lib. i. cap. 13. 
Saepe etiam Stellas, yento impendente, videbis, 
Praecipites coelo labi, noctisque per "umbrani 

Flammarum longos a tergo albescere tractus. Virg. Georg. lib. i. 367. 
Compare Arat. Aioa-nfj.. 194. 



22—54. PARADISE, Canto XV. (433) 

Like flame in alabaster, glow'd its course. 

So forward stretch'd him (if of credence aught 
Our greater muse ! may claim) the pious ghost 
Of old Anchises, in the Elysian bower, 
When he perceived his son. " O thou, my blood ! 

most exceeding grace divine ! to whom, 
As now to thee, hath twice the heavenly gate 
Been e'er unclosed ? " So spake the light : whence I 
Turn'd me toward him ; then unto my dame 

My sight directed : and on either side 
Amazement waited me ; for in her eyes 
Was lighted such a smile, I thought that mine 
Had dived unto the bottom of my grace 
And of my bliss in Paradise. Forthwith, 
To hearing and to sight grateful alike, 
The spirit to his proem added things 

1 understood not, so profound he spake : 
Yet not of choice, but through necessity, 
Mysterious ; for his high conception soar'd 
Beyond the mark of mortals. When the flight 
Of holy transport had so spent its rage, 

That nearer to the level of our thought 

The speech descended ; the first sounds I heard 

Were, " Blest be thou, Triunal Deity ! 

That hast such favour in my seed vouchsafed." 

Then follow' d : "No unpleasant thirst, though long 2 , 

Which took me reading in the sacred book, 

Whose leaves or white or dusky never change, 

Thou hast allay'd, my son ! within this light, 

From whence my voice thou hear'st : more thanks to her, 

Who, for such lofty mounting, has with plumes 

Begirt thee. Thou dost deem thy thoughts to me 

From Him transmitted, who is first of all, 



1 Our greater muse.'] Virgil, JEn. lib. Ti. 684. 

Isque ubi tendentem adversum per gramma vidit 
iEnean, alacris palmas utrasque tetendit. 
Venisti tandem, tuaque spectata parenti 
Vicit iter durum pietas ? 

2 No unpleasant thirst, though long.] " Thou hast satisfied the long yet 
pleasing desire which I have felt to see thee, through my knowledge of thee, 
obtained in the immutable decrees of the diTine Providence." 

2 F 



(434) 



THE VISION. 



55—84. 



E'en as all numbers ray from unity ' ; 

And therefore dost not ask me who I am, 

Or why to thee more joyous I appear, 

Than any other in this gladsome throng. 

The truth is as thou deem'st ; for in this life 

Both less and greater in that mirror look, 

In which thy thoughts, or e'er thou think' st, are shown. 

But, that the love, which keeps me wakeful ever, 

Urging with sacred thirst of sweet desire, 

May be contented fully ; let thy voice, 

Fearless, and frank, and jocund, utter forth 

Thy will distinctly, utter forth the wish, 

Whereto my ready answer stands decreed." 

I torrid me to Beatrice ; and she heard 
Ere I had spoken, smiling an assent, 
That to my will gave wings ; and I began : 
" To each among your tribe 2 , what time ye kenn'd 
The nature, in whom nought unequal dwells, 
Wisdom and love were in one measure dealt ; 
For that they are so equal in the sun, 
From whence ye drew your radiance and your heat, 
As makes all likeness scant. But will and means, 
In mortals, for the cause ye well discern, 
With unlike wings are fledge. A mortal, I 
Experience inequality like this ; 
And therefore give no thanks, but in the heart, 
For thy paternal greeting. This howe'er 
I pray thee, living topaz ! that ingemm'st 
This precions jewel ; let me hear thy name." 

"I am thy root 3 , O leaf ! whom to expect 



1 Unity.'] TiavToyv apa to ev irpuiTOv yiyovs twv apiQfxov kyovTeov. 
Plato, Parmenides, Ed. Bip. vol. x. p. 130. Perhaps the mention of Par- 
nienides in the last Canto but one, suggested this thought to Dante, which 
he has expressed by specifying two particular numbers intended to stand 
for all. There is something similar to it in his treatise De Vulgari 
Eloquio, lib. i. c. xvi. Sicut in numero cuncta mensurantur uno, et plura 
vel pauciora dicuntur, secundum quod distant ab uno, yel ei propinquant. 

2 To each among your tribe, .] " In you, glorified spirits, love and know- 
ledge are made equal, because they are equal in God. But with us 
mortals it is otherwise, for we have often the will without the means of ex- 
pressing our affections ; and I can therefore thank thee only in my heart." 

3 I am thy root.] Cacciaguida, father to Alighieri of whom our Poet was 
the great-grandson. 



85—106. PARADISE, Canto XV. (435) 

Even, hath pleased me." Thus the prompt reply 
Prefacing, next it added : " He, of whom 2 
Thy kindred appellation comes, and who, 
These hundred years and more, on its first ledge 
Hath circuited the mountain, was my son, 
And thy great-grandsire. Well befits, his long 
Endurance should be shorten'd by thy deeds. 
"Florence 2 , within her ancient limit-mark, 
Which calls her still 3 to matin prayers and noon, 
Was chaste and sober, and abode in peace. 
She had no armlets and no head-tires then ; 
No purfled dames ; no zone, that caught the eye 
More than the person did. Time was not yet, 
When 4 at his daughter's birth the sire grew pale, 
For fear the age and dowry should exceed, 
On each side, just proportion. House was none 
Void 5 of its family : nor yet had come 
Sardanapalus 6 , to exhibit feats 
Of chamber prowess. Montemalo 7 yet 
O'er our suburban turret 8 rose ; as much 
To be surpast in fall, as in its rising. 
I saw Bellincion Berti 9 walk abroad 

1 He, of ichom."\ " Thy great grandfather, Alighieri, has been in the 
first ronnd of Purgatory more than a hundred years ; and it is fit that thou 
by thy good deserts shouldst endeavour to shorten the time of his remaining 
there." For what is known of Alighieri see Pelli, Memor. Opere di Dante. 
Ediz. Zatta, 1758, torn. iv. P. 2 da p. 21. His son Bellincione was living in 
1266 ; and of him was born the father of our Poet, whom Benvenuto da 
Imola calls a lawyer by profession. Pelli, ibid. 2 Florence^] See G. 

Villain, lib. iii. cap. ii. 3 Which calls her still. ~\ The public clock 

being still within the circuit of the ancient walls. 4 Whe?i.] When the 
women were not married at too early an age, and did not expect too large 
a portion. 5 Void.] Through the civil wars and banishments. Or he 
may mean that houses were not formerly built merely for pomp and show, 
nor of greater size than was necessary for containing the families that in- 
habited them. For it has been understood in both these ways. 6 Sarda- 
napalus.] The luxurious monarch of Assyria. Juvenal is here imitated, who 
uses his name for an instance of effeminacy. Sat. x. 362. 7 Montemalo.'} 
Either an elevated spot between Rome and Yiterbo ; or Monte Mario, the 
site of the villa Mellini, commanding a view of Rome. 8 Our suburban 
turret.'] Uccellatojo, near Florence, from whence that city was discovered. 
Florence had not yet vied with Rome in the grandeur of her public buildings. 
9 Bellincion Berti.] Hell, Canto xvi. 38, and notes. There is a curious 
description of the simple manner in which the earlier Florentines dressed 
themselves, in G. Yillani, lib. vi. c. lxxi. "And observe that in the time of 
the said people, (A. D. 1259,) and before and for a long time after, the 
citizens of Florence lived soberly, on coarse viands, and at little cost, and in 

2 f 2 



(436) 



THE VISION. 



107—128. 



In leathern girdle, and a clasp of bone ; 

And, with no artful colouring on her cheeks, 

His lady leave the glass. The sons I saw 

Of Nerli, and of Vecchio \ well content 

With unrobed jerkin ; and their good dames handling 

The spindle and the flax : O happy they ! 

Each 2 sure of burial in her native land, 

And none left desolate a-bed for France. 

One waked to tend the cradle, hushing it 

With sounds that lull'd the parent's infancy : 

Another, with her maidens, drawing off 

The tresses from the distaff, lectured them 

Old tales of Troy, and Fesole, and Rome. 

A Salterello and Cianghella 3 we 

Had held as strange a marvel, as ye would 

A Cincinnatus or Cornelia now. 

" In such composed and seemly fellowship, 
Such faithful and such fair equality, 
In so sweet household, Mary 4 at my birth 
Bestow'd me, call'd on with loud cries ; and there, 
In your old baptistery, I was made 
Christian at once and Cacciaguida ; as were 

many customs and courtesies of life were rude and unpolished ; and dressed 
themselves and their women in coarse cloths: many wore plain leather, 
without cloth over it ; bonnets on their heads ; and all, boots on the feet : 
and the Florentine women were without ornament ; the better sort content 
with a close gown of scarlet cloth of Ypres or of camlet, bound with a girdle 
in the ancient mode, and a mantle lined with fur, and a hood to it, which 
was worn on the head ; the common sort of women were clad in a coarse 
gown of Cambrai in like manner. One hundred pounds (libbre) was the 
common portion for a wife ; and two or three hundred was accounted a mag- 
nificent one ; and the young women were for the most part twenty years old 
or more before they were given in marriage. Such was the dress ; and thus 
coarse were the manners of the Florentines : but they were of good faith 
and loyal both among themselves and to the state ; and with their coarse 
way of living and poverty did greater and more virtuous deeds than have 
been done in our times with greater refinement and wealth." 

1 OfNerli, and of Vecchio J] Two of the most opulent families in Florence. 
2 Each.] "None fearful either of dying in banishment, or of being de- 
serted by her husband on a scheme of traffic in France." s A Salterello 
and Cianghella.] The latter a shameless woman of the family of Tosa, 
married to Lito degli Alidosi of Imola: the former Lapo Salterello, a 
lawyer, with whom Dante was at variance. "We should have held an 
abandoned character, like these, as great a wonder, as ye would the contrary 
now." There is a sonnet by Lapo Salterello in Corbinelli's collection printed 
with the Bella Mano. Ed. Firenze, 1715, p. 150. 4 Mary.] The Virgin 
was invoked in the pains of child-birth. Purgatory, Canto xx. 21. 



129—140. PARADISE, Canto XV. (437) 

My brethren Eliseo and Moronto. 

" From Valdipado ! came to me my spouse ; 
And hence thy surname grew. I follow'd then 
The Emperor Conrad 2 : and his knighthood he 
Did gird on me ; in such good part he took 
My valiant service. After him I went 
To testify against that evil law, 
Whose people 3 , by the shepherd's fault, possess 
Your right usurp'd. There I by that foul crew 
Was disentangled from the treacherous world 
Whose base affection many a spirit soils ; 
And from the martyrdom came to this peace." 



CANTO XVI. 



ARGUMENT. 

Cacciaguida relates the time of his birth ; and, describing the extent of 
Florence when he lived there, recounts the names of the chief families who 
then inhabited it. Its degeneracy, and subsequent disgrace, he attributes 
to the introduction of families from the neighbouring country and Tillages, 
and to their mixture with the primitive citizens. 

slight respect of man's nobility ! 

1 never shall account it marvelous, 
That our infirm affection here below 

Thou movest to boasting ; when I could not chuse, 

E'en in that region of unwarp'd desire, 

In heaven itself, but make my vaunt in thee. 

Yet cloak thou art soon shorten'd ; for that Time, 

Unless thou be eked out from day to day, 

Goes round thee with his shears. Eesuming then, 

With greeting 4 such as Rome was first to bear, 

But since hath disaccustom'd, I began : 

And Beatrice 5 , that a little space 

1 Valdipado.'] Cacciaguida's wife, whose family name was Alighieri, came 
from Ferrara, called Val di Pado, from its being watered by the Po. 2 Con- 
rad.] The Emperor Conrad III. who died in 1152. See G. Villani, lib. iv. 
xxxiv. 3 Whose people.] The Mahometans, who were left in possession of 
the Holy Land, through the supineness of the Pope. See Canto ix. 123. 

4 With greeting.] The Poet, who had addressed the spirit, not knowing 
him to be his ancestor, with a plain " Thou," now uses more ceremony, and 
calls him "You," according to a custom introduced among the Romans in 
the latter times of the empire. 5 Beatrice.] Lombardi observes, that in 
order to show us that his conversation with Cacciaguida had no connexion 
with sacred subjects, Beatrice is described as standing at a little distance ; 



(438) THE VISION. 13—31. 

"Was sever'd, smiled ; reminding me of her, 
Whose cough embolden 'd (as the story holds) 
To first offence the doubting Guenever 1 . 

" You are my sire," said I : " you give me heart 
Freely to speak my thought : above myself 
You raise me. Through so many streams with joy 
My soul is fill'd, that gladness wells from it ; 
So that it bears the mighty tide, and bursts not. 
Say then, my honour'd stem ! what ancestors 
Were those you sprang from, and what years were marked 
In your first childhood ? Tell me of the fold 2 , 
That hath Saint John for guardian, what was then 
Its state, and who in it were highest seated ! " 

As embers, at the breathing of the wind, 
Their flame enliven ; so that light I saw 
Shine at my blandishments ; and, as it grew 
More fair to look on, so with voice more sweet, 
Yet not in this our modern phrase, forthwith 
It answer'd : " From the day 3 , when it was said 

and her smiling at his formal address to his ancestor, makes him fall into a 
greater freedom of manner. See the next Canto, v. 15. x Guenever.~\ 

Beatrice's smile reminded him of the female servant who, by her coughing, 
emboldened Queen Guenever to admit the freedoms of Lancelot. See Hell, 
Canto v. 124. 2 The fold.'] Florence, of which John the Baptist was the 
patron saint. 3 From the day.~] From the incarnation of our Lord to the 
birth of Cacciaguida, the planet Mars had returned five hundred and eighty 
times to the constellation of Leo, with which it is supposed to have a con- 
genial influence. As Mars then completes his revolution in a period forty- 
three days short of two years, Cacciaguida was born about 1090. This is 
Lombardi's computation, and it squares well both with the old reading — 

cinquecento cinquanta 

E trenta fiate ; 
and with the time when Cacciaguida might have fallen fighting under Con- 
rad III. who died in 1152. Not so the computation made by the old com- 
mentators in general, who reckoning two years for the revolution of Mars, 
placed the birth of Cacciaguida in 1160 ; the impossibility of which being 
perceived by the Academicians della Crusca, (as it had before been by Pietro, 
the son of our Poet, or by the author of the commentary which passes for 
his,) they altered the word "trenta" into "tre," "thirty" into "three;" 
and so, still reckoning the revolution of Mars at two years, brought Caccia- 
guida' s birth to 1106. The way in which Lombardi has got over the difficulty 
appears preferable, as it retains the old reading \ and I have accordingly 
altered the translation, which before stood thus : — 
this fire had come, 

Five hundred fifty times and thrice, its beams 

To re-illumine underneath the foot 

Of its own lion. 
Since this note was written, Monti has given his assent to Lombardi's 
opinion. See his Proposta under the word " Rinfiammare," t. iii. p te ii. 210. 



32—56. PARADISE, Canto XVI. (439) 

6 Hail Virgin ! ' to the throes by which my mother, 
Who now is sainted, lighten'd her of me 
Whom she was heavy with, this fire had come 
Five hundred times and fourscore, to relume 
Its radiance underneath the burning foot 
Of its own lion. They, of whom I sprang, 
And I, had there our birth-place, where the last 1 
Partition of our city first is reach'd 
By him that runs her annual game. Thus much 
Suffice of my forefathers : who they were, 
And whence they hither came, more honourable 
It is to pass in silence than to tell. 
All those, who at that time were there, betwixt 
Mars 2 and the Baptist, fit to carry arms, 
Were but the fifth, of them this day alive. 
But then the citizen's blood, that now is mix'd 
From Campi and Certaldo and Fighine 3 , 
Ran purely through the last mechanic's veins. 
O how much better were it, that these people 4 
Were neighbours to you ; and that at Galluzzo 
And at Trespiano ye should have your boundary ; 
Than to have them within, and bear the stench 
Of Aguglione's hind, and Signa's 5 , him, 
That hath his eye already keen for bartering 6 . 
Had not the people 7 , which of all the world 

1 The last.] The city was divided into four compartments. The Elisei, 
the ancestors of Dante, resided near the entrance of that, named from the 
Porta S. Piero, which was the last reached by the competitor in the annual 
race at Florence. See G. Villani, lib. iy. cap. x. 2 Mars.] The Padre 

d' Aquino understands this to refer to the population of Florence in Guido's 
time; for, according to him, " tra Marte e'l Batista," means the space be- 
tween the statue of Mars placed on the Ponte Yecchio and the Baptistery ; 
and Lombard! assents to this interpretation. Yenturi supposes, that the 
portion of land so described would hare been insufficient to hold the popula- 
tion which Florence contained at the supposed date of this poem, that is, in 
the year 1300 ; and agrees with the elder commentators, who consider the de- 
scription as relating to time and not to place, and as indicating the two periods 
of heathenism and Christianity. See Canto xiii. 144. It would not be 
easy to determine the real sense of a passage thus equivocal. 3 Campi and 
Certaldo and Fighine.] Country places near Florence. 4 That these 
people.] " That the inhabitants of the above-mentioned places had not been 
mixed with the citizens ; nor the limits of Florence extended beyond Gal- 
luzzo and Trespiano." 5 Aguglione's hind, and Signa's.] Baldo of 
Aguglione, and Bonifazio of Signa. 6 His eye already keen for bartering.'] 
See Hell, Canto xxi. 40, and note. 7 Had not the people.] If Rome had 
continued in her allegiance to the emperor, and the Guelph and Ghibelline 



(440) THE VISION. 57—85. 

Degenerates most, been stepdame unto Cassar, 

But, as a mother to her son been kind, 

Such one, as hath become a Florentine, 

And trades and traffics, had been turn'd adrift 

To Simifonte 1 , where his grandsire plied 

The beggar's craft : the Conti were possest 

Of Montemurlo 2 still : the Cerchi still 

Were in Aeone's parish : nor had haply 

From Valdigrieve past the Buondelmonti. 

The city's malady hath ever source 

In the confusion of its persons, as 

The body's, in variety of food : 

And the blind bull 3 falls with a steeper plunge, 

Than the blind lamb : and oftentimes one sword 

Doth more and better execution, 

Than five. Mark Luni ; Urbisaglia 4 mark ; 

How they are gone ; and after them how go 

Chiusi and Sinigaglia 5 : and 't will seem 

No longer new, or strange to thee, to hear 

That families fail, when cities have their end. 

All things that appertain to ye, like yourselves, 

Are mortal : but mortality in some 

Ye mark not ; they endure so long, and you 

Pass by so suddenly. And as the moon 6 

Doth, by the rolling of her heavenly sphere, 

Hide and reveal the strand unceasingly ; 

So fortune deals with Florence. Hence admire not 

At what of them I tell thee, whose renown 

Time covers, the first Florentines. I saw 



factions had thus been prevented ; Florence would not hare been polluted 
by a race of upstarts, nor lost the most respectable of her ancient families. 

1 Simifonte.'] A castle dismantled by the Florentines. G. Villain, lib. 
v. cap. xxx. The person here alluded to is no longer known. 2 3fo?ite- 
murlo.] G. Villani, lib. v. cap. xxxi., relates that the Conti Guidi, not being 
able to defend their castle from the Pistoians, sold it to the state of Florence. 

3 The blind bull.] So Chaucer, Troilus and Cresseide, b. ii. 

For swifter course cometh thing that is of wight 
"When it descendeth than done things light. 
Compare Aristotle, Ethic. Nic. lib. vi. cap. xiii. " a-co/xarL icryypG), k. t. \." 

4 Luni ; Urbisaglia.] Cities formerly of importance, but then fallen to 
decay. 5 Chiusi and Sinigaglia.] The same. 6 As the moon."] " The 
fortune of us, that are the moon's men, doth ebb and now like the sea." 
Shakspeare, 1 Henry IV. act i. sc. 2. 



S6— 110. PARADISE, Canto XVI. (441) 

The TTghi 1 , Catilini, and Filippi, 

The Alberichi, Greci, and Orrnanni, 

Now in their wane, illustrious citizens ; 

And great as ancient, of Sannella him, 

With him of Area saw, and Soldanieri, 

And Ardinghi, and Bostichi. At the poop 2 

That now is laden with new felony 

So cumbrous it may speedily sink the bark, 

The Ravignani sat, of whom is sprung 

The County Guido, and whoso hath since 

His title from the famed Bellincion ta'en. 

Fair governance was yet an art well prized 

By him of Pressa : Galigaio show'd 

The gilded hilt and pommel 3 , in his house : 

The column, clothed with verrey 4 , still was seen 

Unshaken ; the Sacchetti still were great, 

Giouchi, Sifanti, Galli, and Barucci, 

With them 5 who blush to hear the bushel named. 

Of the Calfucci still the branchy trunk 

Was in its strength : and, to the curule chairs, 

Sizii and Arrigucci 6 yet were drawn. 

How mighty them 7 I saw, whom, since, their pride 

Hath undone ! And in all their goodly deeds 

Florence was, by the bullets of bright gold 8 , 

O'erflourish'd. Such the sires of those °, who now, 

1 The Ughi.] Whoever is curious to know the habitations of these and 
the other ancient Florentines, may consult G. Villani, lib. iv. 2 At the 
poop.] The Cerchi, Dante's enemies, had succeeded to the houses over the 
gate of Saint Peter, formerly inhabited by the Ravignani and the Count 
Cruido. G. Villani, lib. iv. cap. x. Many editions read porta, " gate." — 
The same metaphor is found in iEschylus, Supp. 356, and is there also 
scarce understood by the critics. 

AlSov <rv irpvfivav ttoXsos tod' kcrTEfifxivr]v. 
Respect these wreaths, that crown your city's poop. 

3 The gilded hilt and pommel.] The symbols of knighthood. 4 The 
column, clothed icith verrey.] The arms of the Pigli, or, as some write it, 
the Billi. 5 With them.] Either the Chiaramontesi, or the Tosinghi ; 
one of which had committed a fraud in measuring out the wheat from the 
public granary. See Purgatory, Canto xii. 99. 6 Sizii and Arrigucci.] 
" These families still obtained the magistracies." 7 Them.] The TJberti ; 
according to the Latin note on the Monte Casino MS., with which the editor 
of the extracts from those notes says that Benvenuto agrees. 8 The bul- 

lets of bright gold.] The arms of the Abbati, as it is conjectured ; or of the 
Lamberti, according to the authorities referred to in the last note. 9 The 
sires of those.] " Of the Visdomini, the Tosinghi, and the Cortigiani, who, 
being sprung from the founders of the bishopric of Florence, are the cura- 



(442) THE VISION. 111—130. 

As surely as your church is vacant, flock 

Into her consistory, and at leisure 

There stall them and grow fat. The o'erweening brood l , 

That plays the dragon after him that flees, 

But unto such as turn and show the tooth, 

Ay or the purse, is gentle as a lamb, 

Was on its rise, but yet so slight esteem'd, 

That Ubertino of Donati grudged 

His father-in-law should yoke him to its tribe. 

Already Caponsacco 2 had descended 

Into the mart from Fesole : and Giuda 

And Infangato 3 were good citizens. 

A thing incredible I tell, though true 4 : 

The gateway 5 , named from those of Pera, led 

Into the narrow circuit of your walls. 

Each one, who bears the sightly quart erings 

Of the great Baron 6 , (he whose name and worth 

The festival of Thomas still revives,) 

His knighthood and his privilege retain'd ; 

Albeit one 7 , who borders them with gold, 

tors of its revenues, which they do not spare, whenever it becomes vacant." 
1 The o' emceening brood.'] The Adimari. This family was so little esteemed, 
that Ubertino Donato, who had married a daughter of Bellincion Berti, 
himself indeed derived from the same stock, (see note to Hell, Canto xvi. 38.) 
was offended with his father-in-law, for giving another of his daughters in 
marriage to one of them. 2 Caponsacco.'] The family of Caponsacchi, 
who had removed from Fesole, lived at Florence in the Mercato Yecchio. 

3 Giuda 

And Infangato.] Giuda Guidi and the family of Infangati. 

4 A thing incredible I tell, though true.] Io diro cosa incredibile e vera. 
'Eyco <tol ipeo, s(pi], d> 'EooKpaTes, airta-Tov fxkv vrj tov<s Sr&ovs, aX?]0£S 8s. 

Plato, Theages, Bipont. Edit. torn. ii. p. 23. 5 The gateway.] Landino 
refers this to the smallness of the city : Vellutello, with less probability, to 
the simplicity of the people in naming one of the gates after a private family. 
6 The great Baron.] The Marchese Ugo, who resided at Florence as 
lieutenant of the Emperor Otho III., gave many of the chief families licence 
to bear his arms. See G. Yillani, lib. iv. cap. ii., where the vision is related, 
in consequence of which he sold all his possessions in Germany, and founded 
seven abbeys ; in one whereof, his memory was celebrated at Florence on St. 
Thomas's day. " The marquis, when hunting, strayed away from his peo- 
ple, and wandering through a forest, came to a smithy, where he saw black 
and deformed men tormenting others with fire and hammers ; and, asking 
the meaning of this, he was told that they were condemned souls, who suf- 
fered this punishment, and that the soul of the Marquis Ugo was doomed to 
suffer the same, if he did not repent. Struck with horror, he commended 
himself to the Virgin Mary; and soon after founded the seven religious 
houses." 7 0?ie.] Giano della Bella, belonging to one of the families 



131—151. PARADISE, Canto XVI. (443) 

This day is mingled with the common herd. 

In Borgo yet the Gualterotti dwelt, 

And Importuni l : well for its repose, 

Had it still lack'd of newer neighbourhood 2 . [spring, 

The house 3 , from whence your tears have had their 

Through the just anger, that hath murder'd ye 

And put a period to your gladsome days, 

Was honour'd ; it, and those consorted with it. 

O Buondelmonti ! what ill counseling 

PrevaiPd on thee to break the plighted bond ? 

Many, who now are weeping, would rejoice, 

Had God to Etna 4 given thee, the first time 

Thou near our city earnest. But so was doom'd : 

Florence ! on that maim'd stone 5 which guards the bridge, 

The victim, when thy peace departed, fell. 

" With these and others like to them, I saw 
Florence in such assured tranquillity, 
She had no cause at which to grieve : with these 
Saw her so glorious and so just, that ne'er 
The lily 6 from the lance had hung reverse, 
Or through division been with vermeil dyed." 



thus distinguished, who no longer retained his place among the nobility, 
and had vet added to his arms a bordure or. See Macchiayelli, 1st. Fior. 
lib. ii. p. 86. Ediz. Giolito. 

1 Gualterotti dwelt, 

And Importuni.'] Two families in the compartment of the city called 
Borgo. - Newer neighbourhood.] Some understand this of the Bardi; 

and others, of the Buondelmonti. 3 The house.] Of Amidei. See 

Notes to Canto xxviii. of Hell, 102. 4 To Ema.] " It had been well for 
the city, if thy ancestor had been drowned in the Ema, when he crossed 
that stream on his way from Montebuono to Florence." 5 On that maim'd 
stone.] See Hell, Canto xiii. 144. Near the remains of the statue of Mars, 
Buondelmonti was slain, as if he had been a victim to the god ; and Flo- 
rence had not since known the blessing of peace. 6 The lily.] " The arms 
of Florence had neyer hung reversed on the spear of her enemies, in token of 
her defeat; nor been changed from argent to gules;" as they afterwards 
were, when the Guelfi gained the predominance. 



(444) THE VISION. 1—25. 

CANTO XVII. 



ARGUMENT. 

Cacciaguida predicts to our Poet his exile and the calamities he had to suf- 
fer ; and, lastly, exhorts him to write the present poem. 

Such as the youth \ who came to Clymene, 

To certify himself of that reproach 

Which had been fasten'd on him, (he whose end 

Still makes the fathers chary to their sons,) 

E'en such was I ; nor unobserved was such 

Of Beatrice, and that saintly lamp 2 , 

Who had ere while for me his station moved ; 

When thus my lady : " Give thy wish free vent, 

That it may issue, bearing true report 

Of the mind's impress : not that aught thy words 

May to our knowledge add, but to the end 

That thou mayst use thyself to own thy thirst 3 , 

And men may mingle for thee when they hear." 

" plant, from w^hence I spring ! revered and loved ! 
Who soar' st so high a pitch, that thou as clear 4 , 
As earthly thought determines two obtuse 
In one triangle not contain'd, so clear 
Dost see contingencies, ere in themselves 
Existent, looking at the point 5 whereto 
All times are present ; I, the whilst I scaled 
With Virgil the soul-purifying mount 6 
And visited the nether world 7 of woe, 
Touching my future destiny have heard 
Words grievous, though I feel me on all sides 
Well squared 8 to fortune's blows. Therefore my will 

1 The youth.] Phaeton, who came to his mother Clyniene, to inquire 
of her if he were indeed the son of Apollo. See Ovid, Met. lib. i. ad finem. 
2 That saintly lamp .] Cacciaguida. 3 To own thy thirst.] " That thou 
mayst obtain from otners a solution of any doubt that may occur to thee." 

4 That thou as clear.] " Thou beholdest future events with the same clear- 
ness of evidence that we discern the simplest mathematical demonstrations." 

5 The point.] The divine nature. 6 The soul-purifying mount.] See 
Purg. Canto viii. 133, and Canto xi. 140. ' The nether world.] See 
Hell, Canto x. 77, and Canto xv. 61. 8 Well squared'J] See Plato, Pro- 
tagoras, Ed. Bipont. vol. iii. p. 145, and Aristot. Rhetor, lib. iii., where 
Pietro Vettori, in his Commentary, p. 656, remarks: " Quis nescit Dantem 



26—51. PARADISE, Canto XVII. (445) 

Were satisfied to know the lot awaits me. 
The arrow l , seen beforehand, slacks his flight." 

So said I to the brightness, which erewhile 
To me had spoken ; and my will declared, 
As Beatrice will'd, explicitly. 
Nor with oracular response obscure, 
Such as, or e'er the Lamb of God was slain, 
Beguiled the credulous nations : but, in terms 
Precise, and unambiguous lore, replied 
The spirit of paternal love, enshrined, 
Yet in his smile apparent ; and thus spake : 
"Contingency 2 , whose verge extendeth not 
Beyond the tablet of your mortal mold, 
Is all depictured in the eternal sight ; 
But hence deriveth not necessity 3 , 
More than the tall ship, hurried down the flood, 
Is driven by the eye that looks on it. 
From thence 4 , as to the ear sweet harmony 
From organ comes, so comes before mine eye 
The time prepared for thee. Such as driven out 
From Athens, by his cruel step-dame's 5 wiles, 
Hippolytus departed ; such must thou 
Depart from Florence. This they wish, and this 
Contrive, and will ere long effectuate, there 6 , 
Where gainful merchandize is made of Christ 
Throughout the live-long day. The common cry 7 , 

etiam suo in poemate tetragonum vocasse apposite hominem, qui adversis 
casibus non frangitur sed resistit fortiter ipsis ? " 

1 TJie arrow.'] A line repeated by Ruccellai in his Oreste. 

Nam praevisa minus laedere tela solent. Ovid. 
Che piaga antiveduta assai men duole. Petrarca, Trionfo del Tempo. 

2 Contingency.'] La contingenza, che fuor del quaderno 

Delia vostra materia non si stende. 
I had before understood this, " Contingency, which is not exposed to view 
on the tablet of your nature," " which is not discoverable by your human 
understanding," and had translated it accordingly; but have now adopted 
Lombardi's explanation : " Contingency, which has no place beyond the 
limits of the material world." 3 Necessity.] " The evidence with which 
we see casual events pourtrayed in the source of all truth, no more necessi- 
tates those events, than does the image, reflected in the sight by a ship sail- 
ing down a stream, necessitate the motion of the vessel." 4 From thence.] 
" From the eternal sight; the view of the Deity himself." 5 His cruel 
stepdame.] Phaedra. 6 There.] At Rome, where the expulsion of 

Dante's party from Florence was then plotting, in 1300. 7 The common 
cry.] The multitude will, as usual, be ready to blame those who are suffer- 
ers, whose cause will at last be vindicated by the overthrow of their enemies. 



(446) THE VISION. 52—81. 

Will, as 'tis ever wont, affix the blame 

Unto the party injured: but the truth 

Shall, in the vengeance it dispenseth, find 

A faithful witness. Thou shalt leave each thing 1 

Beloved most dearly : this is the first shaft 

Shot from the bow of exile. Thou shalt prove 

How salt the savour is of other's bread ; 

How hard the passage, to descend and climb 

By other's stairs. But that shall gall thee most, 

Will be the worthless and vile company, 

With whom thou must be thrown into these straits. 

For all ungrateful, impious all, and mad, 

Shall turn 'gainst thee : but in a little while, 

Theirs 2 , and not thine, shall be the crimson'd brow, 

Their course shall so evince their brutishness, 

To have ta'en thy stand apart shall well become thee. 

" First refuge thou must find, first place of rest, 
In the great Lombard's 3 courtesy, who bears, 
Upon the ladder perch'd, the sacred bird. 
He shall behold thee with such kind regard, 
That 'twixt ye two, the contrary to that 
Which 'fals 'twixt other men, the granting shall 
Forerun the asking. With him shalt thou see 
That mortal 4 , who was at his birth imprest 
So strongly from this star, that of his deeds 
The nations shall take note. His unripe age 
Yet holds him from observance ; for these wheels 
Only nine years have compast him about. 
But, ere the Gascon 5 practise on great Harry 6 , 
Sparkles of virtue shall shoot forth in him, 

1 Thou shalt leave each thing. ,] Compare Euripid. Phoen. 399, &c. 

2 Theirs.'] " They shall be ashamed of the part they have taken against 
thee." Lonibardi, I think, is very unhappy in his conjecture, that rotta la 
tempia, a reading of the Nidobeatina edition, should be adopted, and that 
it may mean " the broken heads of his companions." 3 The great Lom- 
bard'] Either Bartolommeo della Scala ; or Alboino his brother, although 
our Poet has spoken ambiguously of him. in his Conyito, p. 179. Their coat 
of arms was a ladder and an eagle. For an account of the rise of this family 
from a very mean condition, see G. Yillani, lib. xi. cap. xciy. 4 That mortal.] 
Can Grande della Scala, born under the influence of Mars, but at this time 
only nine years old. He was, as the other two, a son of Alberto della Scala. 
5 The Gascon.] Pope Clement V. See Hell, Canto xix. 86, and note, and 
Par. Canto xxvii. 53, and Canto xxx. 141. 6 Great Harry .] The Emperor 
Henry VII. See Canto xxx. 135. 



82—116. PARADISE, Canto XVII. (447) 

In equal scorn ! of labours and of gold. 
His bounty shall be spread abroad so widely, 
As not to let the tongues, e'en of his foes, 
Be idle in its praise. Look thou to him, 
And his beneficence : for he shall cause 
Reversal of their lot to many people ; 
Rich men and beggars interchanging fortunes. 
And thou shalt bear this written in thy soul, 
Of him, but tell it not :" and things he told 
Incredible to those who witness them ; 
Then added : "So interpret thou, my son, 
What hath been told thee. — Lo ! the ambushment 
That a few circling seasons hide for thee. 
Yet envy not thy neighbours : time extends 
Thy span beyond their treason's chastisement." 
Soon as the saintly spirit, by silence, mark'd 
Completion of that web, which I had stretch' d 
Before it, warp'd for weaving ; I began, 
As one, who in perplexity desires 
Counsel of other, wise, benign, and friendly : 
" My father ! well I mark how time spurs on 
Toward me, ready to inflict the blow, 
Which falls most heavily on him who most 
Abandoneth himself. Therefore 'tis good 
I should forecast, that, driven from the place 2 
Most dear to me, I may not lose myself 3 
All other by my song. Down through the world 
Of infinite mourning ; and along the mount, 
From whose fair height my lady's eyes did lift me ; 
And, after, through this heaven, from light to light ; 
Have I learnt that, which if I tell again, 
It may with many wofully disrelish : 
And, if I am a timid friend to truth, 
I fear my life may perish among those, 
To whom these days shall be of ancient date." 

1 In equal scorn. ,] See Hell, Canto i. 98. 2 The place.] Our Poet here 
discovers both that Florence, much as he inveighs against it, was still -the 
dearest object of his affections, and that it was not without some scruple he 
indulged his satirical vein. 3 I may not lose myself.'] " That being driven 
out of my country, I may not deprive myself of every other place by the 
boldness, with which I expose in my writings the vices of mankind." 



(448) THE VISION. 117—135. 

The brightness, where enclosed the treasure l smiled, 
Which I had found there, first shone glisteringly, 
Like to a golden mirror in the sun ; 
Next answer'd : " Conscience, dimm'd or by its own 
Or other's shame, will feel thy saying sharp. 
Thou, notwithstanding, all deceit removed, 
See the whole vision be made manifest. 
And let them wince, who have their withers wrung. 
What though, when tasted first, thy voice shall prove 
Unwelcome : on digestion, it will turn 
To vital nourishment. The cry thou raisest 2 , 
Shall, as the wind doth, smite the proudest summits ; * 
Which is of honour no light argument. 
For this, there only have been shown to thee, 
Throughout these orbs, the mountain, and the deep; 
Spirits, whom fame hath note of. For the mind 
Of him, who hears, is loth to acquiesce 
And fix its faith, unless the instance brought 
Be palpable, and proof apparent urge." 



CANTO XVIII. 



ARGUMENT. 

Dante sees the souls of many renowned warriors and crusaders in the planet 
Mars ; and then ascends with Beatrice to Jupiter, the sixth heaven, in 
which he finds the souls of those who had administered justice rightly in 
the world, so disposed, as to form the figure of an eagle. The Canto con- 
cludes with an invective against the avarice of the clergy, and especially 
of the pope. 

Now 3 in his word, sole, ruminating, joy'd 
That blessed spirit : and I fed on mine, 
Tempering the sweet with bitter 4 . She meanwhile, 
Who led me unto God, admonish' d : " Muse 

1 The treasure.'] Cacciaguida. 2 The cry thou raisest.] " Thou shalt 
stigmatize the faults of those who are most eminent and powerful ; for men 
are naturally less moved by instances, adduced from among those who are in 
the lower classes of life." 

3 Now.] The spirit of Cacciaguida enjoyed its own thoughts in silence. 

4 Tempering the sweet with bitter,] 

Chewing the cud of sweet and bitter fancy. 

Shakspeare, As you Like it, act iii. scene 3. 



5—39. PARADISE, Canto XVIIL (449) 

On other thoughts : bethink thee, that near Him 
I dwell, who recompensed! every wrong." 

At the sweet sounds of comfort straight I turn'd ; 
And, in the saintly eyes what love was seen, 
I leave in silence here, nor through distrust 
Of my words only, but that to such bliss 
The mind remounts not without aid. Thus much 
Yet may I speak ; that, as I gazed on her, 
Affection found no room for other wish. 
While the everlasting pleasure, that did full 
On Beatrice shine, with second view 
From her fair countenance my gladden'd soul 
Contented ; vanquishing me with a beam 
Of her soft smile, she spake : " Turn thee, and list. 
These eyes are not thy only Paradise." 

As here, we sometimes in the looks may see 
The affection mark'd, when that its sway hath ta'en 
The spirit wholly ; thus the hallow'd light ! , 
To whom I turn'd, flashing, bewray'd its will 
To talk yet further with me, and began : 
" On this fifth lodgment of the tree 2 , whose life 
Is from its top, whose fruit is ever fair 
And leaf unwithering, blessed spirits abide, 
That were below, ere they arrived in heaven, 
So mighty in renown, as every muse 
Might grace her triumph with them. On the horns 
Look, therefore, of the cross : he whom I name, 
Shall there enact, as doth in summer cloud 
Its nimble fire." Along the cross I saw, 
At the repeated name of Joshua, 
A splendour gliding ; nor, the word was said, 
Ere it was done : then, at the naming, saw, 
Of the great Maccabee 3 , another move 
With whirling speed ; and gladness was the scourge 
Unto that top. The next for Charlemain 4 



1 The hallow'd light.'] In which the spirit of Cacciaguida was enclosed. 
* On this fifth lodgment of the tree.] Mars, the fifth of the heavens. 
3 The great Maccabee.] Judas Maccabeus. 4 Charlemain.] L. Pulci 
commends Dante for placing Charlemain and Orlando here : — 
Io mi confido ancor molto qui a Dante, 
Che non sanza cagios nel ciel su misse 
2 G 



(450) THE VISION. 40—62. 

And for the peer Orlando, two my gaze 
Pursued, intently, as the eye pursues 
A falcon flying. Last, along the cross, 
William, and Renard 1 , and Duke Godfrey 2 drew 
My ken, and Robert Guiscard 3 . And the soul 
Who spake with me, among the other lights 
Did move away, and mix ; and with the quire 
Of heavenly songsters proved his tuneful skill. 

To Beatrice on my right I bent, 
Looking for intimation, or by word 
Or act, what next behoved ; and did descry 
Such mere effulgence in her eyes, such joy, 
It pass'd all former wont. And, as by sense 
Of new delight, the man. who perseveres 
In good deeds, doth perceive, from day to day, 
His virtue growing ; I e'en thus perceived, 
Of my ascent, together with the heaven, 
The circuit widen' d ; noting the increase 
Of beauty in that wonder. Like the change 
In a brief moment on some maiden's cheek, 
Which, from its fairness, doth discharge the weight 
Of pudency, that stain'd it ; such in her, 
And to mine eyes so sudden was the change, 

Carlo ed Orlando in quelle eroei saute, 
Che come diligente intese e scrisse. 

Morg. Hciqg. c. xxviii. 
1 William, and Renard. ,] Probably, not, as the commentators have ima- 
gined, William II. of Orange, and his kinsman Rainibaud, two of the cru- 
saders under Godfrey of Bouillon, (Maimbourg, Hist, des Croisades, ed. Par. 
1682, 12mo. torn. i. p. 96.) but rather the two more celebrated heroes in the 
age of Charlemain. The former, William I. of Orange, supposed to have 
been the founder of the present illustrious family of that name, died about 
808, according to Joseph de la Pise, Tableau de i'Hist. des Princes et Prin- 
cipaute d' Orange. Our countryman, Ordericus Yitaiis, professes to give his 
true life, which had been misrepresented in the songs of the itinerant bards. 
" Yulgo canitur a joculatoribus de illo cantilena; sed jure praeferenda est 
relatio autentica." Heel. Hist, in Duchesne, Hist. N o r mann . Script, p, 
•598. The latter is better known by having been celebrated by Ariosto, un- 
der the name of Rinaldo. 2 Duke Godfrey.'] Godfrey of Bouillon. 
Poi Tenia solo il buon duce Goffrido, 
Che fe rimpresa santa e i passi giusti ; 
Questo, di ch' io mi sdegno e'ndamo grido, 
Fece in Hierusaleni con le sue mani 
II mal guardato e gia negletto nido. 

Petrarca, Tr. della Fama, cap. ii 
3 Robert Guiscard.] See Hell, Canto xxriii. 12. 



63—93. PARADISE, Canto XVIII. (451) 

Through silvery x whiteness of that temperate star. 
Whose sixth orb now enfolded us. I saw, 
Within that Jovial cresset, the clear sparks 
Of love, that reign'd there, fashion to my view 
Our language. And as birds, from river banks 
Arisen, now in round, now lengthen'd troop, 
Array them in their flight, greeting, as seems, 
Their new-found pastures ; so, within the lights, 
The saintly creatures flying, sang ; and made 
Now D, now I, now L, figured i' the air. 
First singing to their notes they moved ; then, one 
Becoming of these signs, a little while 
Did rest them, and were mute. O nymph divine 2 , 
Of Pegasean race ! who souls, which thou 
Inspirest, makest glorious and long-lived, as they 
Cities and realms by thee ; thou with thyself 
Inform me ; that I may set forth the shapes, 
As fancy doth present them : be thy power 
Display' d in this brief song. The characters 3 , 
Vocal and consonant, were five-fold seven. 
In order, each, as they appear'd, I mark'd 
Diligite Justitiam, the first, 

Both verb and noun all blazon'd ; and the extreme, 
Qui judicatis terram. In the M 
Of the fifth word they held their station ; 
Making the star seem silver streak'd with gold. 
And on the summit of the M, I saw 
Descending other lights, that rested there, 
Singing, methinks, their bliss and primal good. 
Then, as at shaking of a lighted brand, 
Sparkles innumerable on all sides 

1 Through silvery.'] So in the Convito, " E'l ciel di Giove, &c." p. 74. 
" The heaven of Jupiter may be compared to geometry, for two properties : 
the one is, that it moves between two heavens repugnant to its temperature, 
as that of Mars and that of Saturn ; whence Ptolemy, in the above-cited book, 
says that Jupiter is a star of temperate complexion, between the coldness of 
Saturn and the heat of Mars : the other is, that, among all the stars, it shows 
itself white, as it were silvered." 8 O nymph divine.'] " O muse, thou 
that makest thy votaries glorious and long-lived, as they, assisted by thee, 
make glorious and long-lived the cities and realms which they celebrate, now 
enlighten me, &c." 3 The characters.] Diligite justitiam qui judicatis 
terram. " Love righteousness, ye that be judges of the earthy" Wisdom 
of Solomon, c. i. 1. 

2 g 2 



(452) THE VISION. 94—126. 

Rise .scatter'd, source of augury to the unwise l ; 

Thus more than thousand twinkling lustres hence 

Seem'd reascending ; and a higher pitch 

Some mounting, and some less, e'en as the sun, 

Which kin die th them, decreed. And when each one 

Had settled in his place ; the head and neck 

Then saw I of an eagle, livelily 

Graved in that streaky fire. Who painteth there 2 , 

Hath none to guide Him : of Himself he guides : 

And every line and texture of the nest 

Doth own from Him the virtue fashions it. 

The other bright beatitude 3 , that seem'd 

Erewhile, with lilied crowning, well content 

To over-canopy the M, moved forth, 

Following gently the impress of the bird. 

Sweet star ! what glorious and thick-studded gems 
Declared to me our justice on the earth 
To be the effluence of that heaven, which thou, 
Thyself a costly jewel, dost inlay. 
Therefore I pray the Sovran Mind, from whom 
Thy motion and thy virtue are begun, 
That He would look from whence the fog doth rise, 
To vitiate thy beam ; so that once more 4 
He may put forth his hand 'gainst such, as drive 
Their traffic in that sanctuary, whose walls 
With miracles and martyrdoms were built. 

Ye host of heaven, whose glory I survey ! 
O beg ye grace for those, that are, on earth, 
All after ill example gone astray. 
War once had for his instrument the sword : 
But now 'tis made, taking the bread away 5 , 
Which the good Father locks from none. — And thou, 
That writest but to cancel 6 , think, that they, 

1 The unwise.] "Who augur future riches to themselves in proportion to 
the quantity of sparks that fly from the lighted brand when it is shaken. 
2 Who painteth there. ~\ The Deity himself. 3 Beatitude.] The band 

of spirits ; for " beatitudo " is here a noun of multitude. 4 That once 

more.] " That he may again drive out those who buy and sell in the 
temple.'* 5 Taking the bread away .] " Excommunication, or interdiction 
of the eucharist, is now employed as a weapon of warfare." 6 That 

writest but to cancel.] " And thou, Pope Boniface, who writest thy ecclesi- 
astical censures for no other purpose than to be paid for revoking them." 



127—132. PARADISE, Canto XVIII. (453) 

Who for the vineyard, which thou wastest, died, 
Peter and Paul, live yet, and mark thy doings. 
Thou hast good cause to cry, " My heart so cleaves 
To him *, that lived in solitude remote, 
And for a dance 2 was dragg'd to martyrdom, 
I wist not of the fisherman nor Paul." 



CANTO XIX. 



ARGUMENT. 

The eagle speaks as with one voice proceeding from a multitude of spirits, 
that compose it ; and declares the cause for which it is exalted to that state 
of glory. It then solves a doubt, which our Poet had entertained, respect- 
ing the possibility of salvation without belief in Christ ; exposes the ineffi- 
cacy of a mere profession of such belief ; and prophesies the evil appearance 
that many Christian potentates will make at the day of judgment. 

Before my sight appear'd, with open wings, 
The beauteous image ; in fruition sweet, 
Gladdening the thronged spirits. Each did seem 
A little ruby, whereon so intense 
The sun-beam glow'd, that to mine eyes it came 
In clear refraction. And that, which next 
Befals me to pourtray, voice hath not utter'd, 
Nor hath ink written 3 , nor in fantasy 
Was e'er conceived. For I beheld and heard 
The beak discourse ; and, what intention form'd 
Of many, singly as of one express, 
Beginning : "For that I was just and piteous, 
I am exalted to this height of glory, 
The which no wish exceeds : and there on earth 
Have I my memory left, e'en by the bad 
Commended, while they leave its course untrod." 
Thus is one heat from many embers felt ; 

1 To him.'] The coin of Florence was stamped with the impression of 
John the Baptist ; and, for this, the avaricious pope is made to declare that 
he felt more devotion, than either for Peter or Paul. Lombardi, I know 
not why, would apply this to Clement V. rather than to Boniface VIII. 
2 And for a dance.] I am indebted to an intelligent critic in the Monthly 
Review, 1823, for pointing out my former erroneous translation of the words 
"per salti," " From the wilds." 

3 Nor hath ink written^ This joie ne maie not written be with inke. 

Chaucer, Troilus and Cresseide, b. iii, 



(454) THE VISION. 18—42. 

As in that image many were the loves, 

And one the voice, that issued from them all : 

Whence I address' d them : " O perennial flowers 

Of gladness everlasting ! that exhale 

In single breath your odours manifold ; 

Breathe now : and let the hunger be appeased, 

That with great craving long hath held my soul, 

Finding no food on earth. This well I know ; 

That if there be in heaven a realm, that shows 

In faithful mirror the celestial Justice, 

Yours without veil reflects it. Ye discern 

The heed, wherewith I do prepare myself 

To hearken ; ye, the doubt, that urges me 

With such inveterate craving/' Straight I saw, 

Like to a falcon l issuing from the hood, 

That rears his head, and claps him with his wings, 

His beauty and his eagerness bewraying ; 

So saw I move that stately sign, with praise 

Of grace divine inwoven, and high song 

Of inexpressive joy. " He," it began, 

"Who turn'd his compass 2 on the worlds extreme, 

And in that space so variously hath wrought, 

Both openly and in secret ; in such wise 

Could not, through all the universe, display 

Impression of his glory, that the Word 3 

1 Like to a falcon.] Come falcon ch' uscisse dal cappello. 

Boccaccio, II Filostrato, p. iy. st. 83. 
Which Chaucer translates, 

As fresh as faucon coming out of mew. Troilus and Cresseide, b. iii. 

Poi come fa '1 falcon, quando si move, 

Cosi Umilta al cielo alzo la vista. Frezzi, II Quadrir. lib. iv. cap. 5. 

Rinaldo sta come suole il falcone 

Uscito del capello a la veleta. L. Pulci, Morgante Magg. c. xi. 

2 Who turrtd his compass.] "When he prepared the heavens, I was 
there : when he set a compass upon the face of the depth." Proverbs, viii. 27. 

In his hand 

He took the golden compasses, prepared 

In God's eternal store, to circumscribe 

This universe, and all created things. Milton, P. L. b. vii. 227. 

3 The Word.] " The divine nature still remained incomprehensible. Of 
this Lucifer was a proof ; for he, though the chief of all created beings, yet, 
through his pride, waiting not for further supplies of the divine illumination, 
fell without coming to maturity." Thus our author in the De Vulgari 
Eloquio, speaking of the fallen angels, says, " divinam curam perversi ex- 
pectare noluerunt." L. i. c. 2. 



43—79. PARADISE, Canto XIX. (455) 

Of his omniscience should not still remain 

In infinite excess. In proof whereof, 

He first through pride supplanted, who was sum 

Of each created being, waited not 

For light celestial ; and abortive fell. 

Whence needs each lesser nature is but scant 

Receptacle unto that Good, which knows 

No limit, measured by itself alone. 

Therefore your sight, of the omnipresent Mind 

A single beam, its origin must own 

Surpassing far its utmost potency. 

The ken, your world is gifted with, descends 

In the everlasting Justice as low down, 

As eye doth in the sea ; which, though it mark 

The bottom from the shore, in the wide main 

Discerns it not ; and nevertheless it is ; 

But hidden through its deepness. Light is none, 

Save that which cometh from the pure serene 

Of ne'er disturbed ether : for the rest, 

'Tis darkness all ; or shadow of the flesh, 

Or else its poison. Here confess reveal'd 

That covert, which hath hidden from thy search 

The living justice, of the which thou madest 

Such frequent question ; for thou said'st — ' A man 

Is born on Indus' banks, and none is there 

Who speaks of Christ, nor who doth read nor write ; 

And all his inclinations and his acts, 

As far as human reason sees, are good ; , 

And he offendeth not in word or deed : 

But unbaptized he dies, and void of faith. 

Where is the justice that condemns him? where 

His blame, if he believeth not ? ' — What then, 

And who art thou, that on the stool wouldst sit 

To judge at distance of a thousand miles 

With the short-sighted vision of a span ? 

To him ! , who subtilizes thus with me, 

There would assuredly be room for doubt 

1 To him.'] " He, who should argue, on the words I have just used, re- 
specting the fate of those who have wanted means of knowing the Gospel, 
would certainly have cause enough to doubt, if he did not defer to the au- 
thority of Scripture, which pronounces God to be thoroughly just." 



(456) THE VISION. 80—113. 

Even to wonder, did not the safe word 
Of Scripture hold supreme authority. 

" O animals of clay ! O spirits gross ! 
The primal will \ that in itself is good, 
Hath from itself, the chief Good, ne'er been moved. 
Justice consists in consonance with it, 
Derivable by no created good, 
Whose very cause depends upon its beam." 

As on her nest the stork, that turns about 
Unto her young, whom lately she hath fed, 
Whiles they with upward eyes do look on her ; 
So lifted I my gaze ; and, bending so, 
The ever-blessed image waved its wings, 
Labouring with such deep counsel. Wheeling round 
It warbled, and did say : " As are my notes 
To thee, who understand'st them not ; such is 
The eternal judgment unto mortal ken." 

Then still abiding in that ensign ranged, 
Wherewith the Romans overawed the world, 
Those burning splendours of the Holy Spirit 
Took up the strain ; and thus it spake again : 
" None ever hath ascended to this realm, 
Who hath not a believer been in Christ, 
Either before or after the blest limbs 
Were nail'd upon the wood. But lo ! of those 
Who call ' Christ, Christ V there shall be many found, 
In judgment, further off from him by far, 
Than such to whom his name was never known. 
Christians like these the ^Ethiop 3 shall condemn : 
When that the two assemblages shall part ; 
One rich eternally, the other poor. 

" What may the Persians say unto your kings, 
When they shall see that volume 4 , in the which 
All their dispraise is written, spread to view ? 

1 The primal will. ,] The divine will. 2 Who call i Christ, Christ.'] 

1 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the king- 
dom of heaven." Matt. vii. 21. 3 The yEthiop.] " The men of Nine- 
veh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it." 
Matt. xii. 41. 4 That volume.'] " And I saw the dead, small and great, 
stand before God ; and the books were opened : and another book was open- 
ed, which is the book of life : and the dead were judged out of those things 
which were written in the books, according to their works." Rev. xx. J2. 



114—135. PARADISE, Canto XIX, (457) 

There amidst Albert's l works shall that be read, 
Which will give speedy motion to the pen, 
When Prague 2 shall mourn her desolated realm. 
There shall be read the woe, that he 3 doth work 
With his adulterate money on the Seine, 
Who by the tusk will perish : there be read 
The thirsting pride, that maketh fool alike 
The English and Scot 4 , impatient of their bound. 
There shall be seen the Spaniard's luxury 5 ; 
The delicate living there of the Bohemian 6 , 
Who still to worth has been a willing stranger. 
The halter of Jerusalem 7 shall see 
A unit for his virtue ; for his vices, 
No less a mark than million. He 8 , who guards 
The isle of fire by old Anchises honour'd, 
Shall find his avarice there and cowardice ; 
And better to denote his littleness, 
The writing must be letters maim'd, that speak 
Much in a narrow space. All there shall know 
His uncle 9 and his brother's 10 filthy doings, 
Who so renown'd a nation and two crowns 
Have bastardized 11 . And they, of Portugal 12 

1 Albert.] Purgatory, Canto vi. 98. 2 Prague.] The eagle pre- 

dicts the devastation of Bohemia by Albert, which happened soon after 
this time, when that emperor obtained the kingdom for his eldest son Ro- 
dolph. See Coxe's House of Austria, 4to ed. vol. i. part i. p. 87. 3 He.] 
Philip IY. of France, after the battle of Courtrai, 1302, in which the 
French were defeated by the Flemings, raised the nominal value of the coin. 
This king died in consequence of his horse being thrown to the ground 
by a wild boar, in 1314. The circumstances of his death are minutely re- 
lated by Fazio degli Uberti, Dittamondo. lib. iv. cap. 19. 4 The English 
and Scot.] He adverts to the disputes between John Baliol and Edward 
I., the latter of whom is commended in the Purgatory, Canto vii. 130. 
a The Spaniard's luxury.] The commentators refer this to Alonzo X. of 
Spain. It seems probable that the allusion is to Ferdinand IV. who came to 
the crown in 1295, and died in 1312, at the age of twenty-four, in conse- 
quence, as it was supposed, of his extreme intemperance. See Mariana, 
Hist. lib. xv. cap. 11. 6 The Bohemian?^ "Winceslaus II. Purgatory, 
Canto vii. 99. "' The halter of Jerusalem.] Charles II. of Naples and Je- 
rusalem, who was lame. See note to Purgatory, Canto vii. 122, and xx. 78. 

8 He.] Frederick of Sicily, son of Peter III. of Arragon. Purgatoiy, 
Canto vii. 117. The isle of fire is Sicily, where was the tomb of Anchises. 

9 His uncle.] James, king of Majorca and Minorca, brother to Peter III. 

10 His brother.] James II. of Arragon, who died in 1327. See Purgatory, 
Canto vii. 117. u Bastardized.] " Bozze," according to Bembo, is a Pro- 
vencal word for " bastardo e non legitimo." Delia Volg. Lingua, lib. i. p. 25. 
Ediz. 1544. Others have understood it to mean, "one dishonoured by his 



(458) THE VISION. 136—145, 

And Norway 1 , there shall be exposed, with him 

Of Ratza 2 , who hath counterfeited ill 

The coin of Venice. O blest Hungary 3 ! 

If thou no longer patiently abidest 

Thy ill-entreating : and, O blest Navarre 4 ! 

If with thy mountainous girdle 5 thou wouidst arm thee. 

In earnest of that day, e'en now are heard 

Waitings and groans in Famagosta's streets 

And Nicosia's 6 , grudging at their beast, 

Who keepeth even footing with the rest 7 ." 



wife." 12 Of Portugal.'] In the tinie of Dante, Dionysius was king of 
Portugal. He died in 1325, after a reign of nearly forty-six years, and does 
not seem to have deserved the stigma here fastened on him. See Mariana, 
lib. xt. cap. 18. Perhaps the rebellions son of Dionysius may be alluded to. 

1 Norway. ] Haquin, king of Xorway, is probably meant ; who, having 
given refuge to the murderers of Eric VII. king of Denmark, A.D. 1288", 
commenced a war against his successor, Eric VIII. " which continued for 
nine years, almost to the utter ruin and destruction of both kingdoms." 
Modern Univ. Hist. vol. xxxii. p. 215. 

* Him 

Of Ratza.'] One of the dynasty of the house of Nemagna, which ruled 
the kingdom of Rassia or Ratza, in Sclavonia, from 1161 to 1371, and whose 
history may be found in Mauro Orbino. Regno degli Slavi, Ediz. Pesaro. 
1601. Uladislaus appears to have been the sovereign in Dante's time : but the 
disgraceful forgery, adverted to in the text, is not recorded by the historian. 

3 Hungary.'] The kingdom of Hungary was about this time disputed by 
Carobert, son of Charles Martel, and Winceslaus, prince of Bohemia, son of 
Winceslaus II. See Coxe's House of Austria, vol. i. part i. p. 86, 4to edit. 

4 Navarre.] Xavarre was now under the yoke of France. It soon after (in 
1328) followed the advice of Dante, and had a monarch of its own. Mariana, 
lib. xv. cap. 19. 5 Mountainous girdle.] The Pyrenees. 

G Famagosta' s streets 

And Nicosia's.] Cities in the kingdom of Cyprus, at that time ruled, 
by Henry II. a pusillanimous prince. Yertot, Hist, des Chev. de Malte, 
lib. iii. iv. The meaning appears to be, that the complaints made by those 
cities of their weak and worthless governor, may be regarded as an earnest 
of his condemnation at the last doom. 7 The ?°est.] " Wise Poet ! " thus 
Landino concludes his commentary on this Canto ; "to whom the human 
race owes obligations for having thus severely reprehended the faults of 
princes ; since these are not, like the errors of* private persons, harmful to 
one or a few only ; but injure all the country which they govern ; and a 
single one frequently causes the ruin of whole nations." Much to the same 
effect is a memorable sentence in Xenophon's Agesilaus, that excellent 
manual for princes. kcu ras fikv twv Loiwtcov afxapTias irpaco? ecpeps, rds 
8k Ttoi/ apy^ovruiv /zgyaXas ? T /y £ 5 kolvwv, tous fxkv 6\iya, tous dk TroXXd 
tcaKco<s ciaTidiuaL. C. xi. 6. Compare also the opening of Demosthenes' 
second Speech against Aristogiton. 



1—25. PARADISE, Canto XX. (459) 

CANTO XX. 



ARGUMENT. 

The eagle celebrates the praise of certain kings, whose glorified spirits form 
the eye of the bird. In the pupil is David ; and, in the circle ronnd it, 
Trajan, Hezekiah, Constantine, William II. of Sicily, and Ripheus. It 
explains to our Poet, how the souls of those whom he supposed to have had 
no means of believing in Christ, came to be in heaven ; and concludes with 
an admonition against presuming to fathom the counsels of God. 

When, disappearing from our hemisphere, 
The world's enlightener vanishes, and day 
On all sides wasteth ; suddenly the sky, 
Ere while irradiate only with his beam, 
Is yet again unfolded, putting forth 
Innumerable lights wherein one shines ! . 
Of such vicissitude in heaven I thought ; 
As the great sign 2 , that marshaleth the world 
And the world's leaders, in the blessed beak 
Was silent : for that all those living lights, 
"Waxing in splendour, burst forth into songs, 
Such as from memory glide and fall away. 

Sweet Love, that dost apparel thee in smiles ! 
How lustrous was thy semblance in those sparkles, 
Which merely are from holy thoughts inspired. 

After 3 the precious and bright beaming stones, 
That did ingem the sixth light, ceased the chiming 
Of their angelic bells ; ruethought I heard 
The murmuring of a river, that doth fall 
From rock to rock transpicuous, making known 
The richness of his spring-head : and as sound 
Of cittern, at the fret-board, or of pipe, 
Is, at the wind-hole, modulate and tuned ; 
Thus up the neck, as it were hollow, rose 
That murmuring of the eagle ; and forthwith 

1 Wherein one shines.~) The light of the sun, whence he supposes the 
other celestial bodies to derive their light. Thus, in the Convito, p. 115. 
11 Nullo sensibile, &c." " No sensible object in the world is more worthy to 
be made an example of the deity, than the sun, which with sensible light 
enlightens first itself, and then all celestial and elementary bodies." 2 The 
great sign.'] The eagle, the Imperial ensign. 3 After.] " After the 

spirits in the sixth planet (Jupiter) had ceased their singing.*' 



(460) THE VISION. 26—57. 

Voice there assumed ; and thence along the beak 
Issued in form of words, such as my heart 
Did look for, on whose tables I inscribed them. 

" The part l in me, that sees and bears the sun 
In mortal eagles," it began, " must now 
Be noted stedfastly : for, of the fires, 
That figure me, those, glittering in mine eye, 
Are chief of all the greatest. This, that shines 
Midmost for pupil, was the same who 2 sang 
The Holy Spirit's song, and bare about 
The ark from town to town : now doth he know 
The merit of his soul-impassion* d strains 
By their well-fitted guerdon. Of the five, 
That make the circle of the vision, he 3 , 
Who to the beak is nearest, comforted 
The widow for her son : now doth he know, 
How dear it costeth not to follow Christ ; 
Both from experience of this pleasant life, 
And of its opposite. He next 4 , who follows 
In the circumference, for the over-arch, 
By true repenting slack'd the pace of death : 
Now knoweth he, that the decrees of heaven 5 
Alter not, when, through pious prayer below, 
To-day is made to-morrow's destiny. 
The other following 6 , with the laws and me, 
To yield the shepherd room, pass'd o'er 7 to Greece ; 
From good intent, producing evil fruit : 
Now knoweth he, how all the ill, derived 
From his well doing, doth not harm him aught ; 
Though it have brought destruction on the world. 
That, which thou seest in the under bow, 
Was William 8 , whom that land bewails, which weeps 

1 The part.] Lombard! well observes, that tbe head of the eagle is seen 
in profile, so that one eye only appears. 2 Who.] David. 3 He.] 
Trajan. See Pnrgatory, Canto x. 68. 4 He next.] Hezekiah. 5 The 
decrees of heaven.] The eternal counsels of God are indeed immutable, 
though they appear to us men to be altered by the prayers of the pious. 
6 The other following.] Constantine. There is no passage, in which 
Dante's opinion of the evil that had arisen from the mixture of the civil 
with the ecclesiastical power, is more unequivocally declared. 7 Pass'd 

o'er.] " Left the Roman state to the Pope, and transferred the seat of the 
empire to Constantinople." 8 William.] William II., king of Sicily, at 
the latter part of the twelfth century. He was of the Norman line of sove- 



58—77. PARADISE, Canto XX. (461) 

For Charles and Frederick living : now lie knows, 
How well is loved in heaven the righteous king ; 
Which he betokens by his radiant seeming. 
Who, in the erring world beneath, would deem 
That Trojan Ripheus 1 , in this round, was set, 
Fifth of the saintly splendours ? now he knows 
Enough of that, which the world cannot see ; 
The grace divine : albeit e'en his sight 
Reach not its utmost depth." Like to the lark, 
That warbling in the air expatiates long, 
Then, trilling out his last sweet melody, 
Drops, satiate with the sweetness ; such appear'd 
That image, stampt by the everlasting pleasure, 
Which fashions, as they are, all things that be. 

I, though my doubting were as manifest, 
As is through glass 2 the hue that mantles it, 
In silence waited not ; for to my lips 
" What things are these ? " involuntary rush'd, 
And forced a passage out : whereat I mark'd 
A sudden lightening and new revelry. 



reigns, and obtained the appellation of " the Good ; " and, as the Poet 
says, his loss was as much the subject of regret in his dominions, as the 
presence of Charles II. of Anjou, and Frederick of Arragon, was of sorrow 
and complaint. 

1 Trojan Ripheus.'] 

Ripheus justissimus unus 
Qui fait in Teucris, et servantissimus aequi. Virg. 2En. lib, ii. 427. 

Then Ripheus fell, the justest far of all 

The sons of Troy. Pitt. 

2 Through glass.] This is the only allusion I have remarked in our author 
to the art of painting glass. Tiraboschi traces that invention in Italy as far 
back as to the end of the eighth century. Stor. della Lett. Ital. torn. iii. 
lib. iii. cap. vi. § ii. This, however, if we may trust Mr. Warton's judgment, 
must have been a sort of mosaic in glass. For to express figures in glass, or 
what we now call the art of painting in glass, that writer observes, u was a 
very different work ; and I believe I can show it was brought from Con- 
stantinople to Rome before the tenth century, with other ornamental arts." 
History of English Poetry, vol. iii. p. xxii. In the following passage from 
the Dittamondo of Fazio degli TJberti, lib. v. cap. 3, the allusion is to 
mosaic in glass : 

E pensa s' ai veduto e posto cura, 

Quando il musaico con vetri dipinti 

Adorna e compon ben la sua pittura, 
E quei che son piu riccarnente tinti 

Nelle piu nobil parti gli son sempre, 

Ed e converso nel men gli piu stinti. 



(462) THE VISION. 78 — 115. 

The eye was kindled ; and the blessed sign, 
No more to keep me wondering and suspense, 
Replied : "I see that thou belie vest these things, 
Because I tell them, but discern'st not how ; 
So that thy knowledge waits not on thy faith : 
As one, who knows the name of thing by rote, 
But is a stranger to its properties, 
Till other's tongue reveal them. Fervent love, 
And lively hope, with violence assail 
The kingdom cf the heavens, and overcome 
The will of the Most High ; not in such sort 
As man prevails o'er man ; but conquers it, 
Because 'tis willing to be conquer'd ; still, 
Though conquer'd, by its mercy, conquering. 

" Those, in the eye who live the first and fifth, 
Cause thee to marvel, in that thou behold'st 
The region of the angels deck'd with them. 
They quitted not their bodies, as thou deem'st, 
Gentiles, but Christians ; in firm rooted faith, 
This \ of the feet in future to be pierced, 
That 2 , of feet nail'd already to the cross. 
One from the barrier of the dark abyss, 
Where never any with good will returns, 
Came back unto his bones. Of lively hope 
Such was the meed ; of lively hope, that wing'd 
The prayers 3 sent up to God for his release, 
And put power into them to bend His will. 
The glorious Spirit, of whom I speak to thee, 
A little while returning to the flesh, 
Believed in him, who had the means to help ; 
And, in believing, nourish'd such a flame 
Of holy love, that at the second death 
He was made sharer in our gamesome mirth. 
The other, through the riches of that grace, 
Which from so deep a fountain doth distil, 
As never eye created saw its rising, 
Placed all his love below on just and right : 
Wherefore, of grace, God oped in him the eye 

i This.] Ripheus. 2 That] Trajan. 3 The prayers.] The pray- 
ers of St. Gregory. 



116—140. PARADISE, Canto XX. (463) 

To the redemption of mankind to come ; 

Wherein believing, he endured no more 

The filth of Paganism, and for their ways 

Rebuked the stubborn nations. The three nymphs *, 

Whom at the right wheel thou beheld'st advancing, 

Were sponsors for him, more than thousand years 

Before baptizing. O how far removed, 

Predestination ! is thy root from such 

As see not the First Cause entire : and ye, 

O mortal men ! be wary how ye judge : 

For we, who see our Maker, know not yet 

The number of the chosen ; and esteem 

Such scantiness of knowledge our delight : 

For all our good is, in that primal good, 

Concentrate ; and God's will and ours are one." 

So, by that form divine, was given to me 
Sweet medicine to clear and strengthen sight. 
And, as one handling skilfully the harp, 
Attendant on some skilful songster's voice 
Bids the chord vibrate ; and therein the song 
Acquires more pleasure : so the whilst it spake, 
It doth remember me, that I beheld 
The pair 2 of blessed luminaries move, 
Like the accordant twinkling of two eyes, 
Their beamy circlets, dancing to the sounds. 



CANTO XXL 



ARGUMENT. 

Dante ascends -with Beatrice to the seyenth heaven, which is the planet 
Saturn ; wherein is placed a ladder, so lofty, that the top of it is ont of his 
sight. Here are the souls of those who had passed their life in holy retire- 
ment and contemplation. Piero Damiano comes near them, and answers 
questions put to him by Dante ; then declares who he was on earth ; and 
ends by declaiming against the luxury of pastors and prelates in those 
times. 

Again mine eyes were fix'd on Beatrice ; 
And, with mine eyes, my soul that in her looks 



1 The three nymphs.'] Faith, Hope, and Charity. Purgatory, Canto 
xxix. 116. 2 the pair.'] Ripheus and Trajan. 



(464) THE VISION. 3—36. 

Found all contentment. Yet no smile she wore : 

And, " Did I smile," quoth she, " thou wouldst be straight 

Like Semele when into ashes turn'd : 

For, mounting these eternal palace-stairs, 

My beauty, winch the loftier it climbs, 

As thou hast noted, still doth kindle more, 

So shines, that, were no tempering interposed, 

Thy mortal puissance would from its rays 

Shrink, as the leaf doth from the thunderbolt. 

Into the seventh splendour x are we wafted, 

That, underneath the burning lion's breast 2 , 

Beams, in this hour, commingled with his might. 

Thy mind be with thine eyes ; and, in them, mirror'd 3 

The shape, which in this mirror shall be shown." 

TThoso can deem, how fondly I had fed 
My sight upon her blissful countenance, 
May know, when to new thoughts I changed, what joy 
To do the bidding of my heavenly guide ; 
In equal balance 4 , poising either weight. 

"Within the crystal, which records the name 
(As its remoter circle girds the world) 
Of that loved monarch 5 , in whose happy reign 
No ill had power to harm, I saw rear'd up, 
In colour like to sun-illumined gold, 
A ladder, which my ken pursued in vain, 
So lofty was the summit ; down whose steps 
I saw the splendours in such multitude 
Descending, every light in heaven, methought, 
Was shed thence. As the rooks, at dawn of day, 
Bestirring them to dry their feathers chill, 
Some speed their way a-field ; and homeward some, 
Returning, cross their flight ; while some abide, 
And wheel around their airy lodge : so seem'd 
That glitterance 6 , wafted on alternate wing, 

1 The seventh splendour •.] The planet Saturn. 2 The burning lion's 
breast.] The constellation Leo. 3 In them, mirror'd.'] " Let the form 
which thon shalt now behold in this mirror," the planet, that is, of Saturn, 
(soon after, v. 22, called the Crystal,) "be reflected in the mirror of thy 
sight." 4 . In equal balance.] " My pleasure was as great in complying 
with her will, as in beholding her countenance." b Of that loved mon- 

arch.] Saturn. Compare Hell, Canto xiv. 91. 6 That glitterance.] 

Quello similar. That multitude of shining spirits, who, coming to a cer- 



37—73. PARADISE, Canto XXI. (465) 

As upon certain stair it came, and clash'd 
Its shining. And one, lingering near us, wax'd 
So bright, that in nry thought I said : " The love, 
Which this betokens me, admits no doubt." 

Unwillingly from question I refrain ; 
To her, by whom my silence and my speech 
Are order'd, looking for a sign : whence she, 
"Who in the sight of Him, that seeth all, 
Saw wherefore I was silent, prompted me 
To indulge the fervent wish ; and I began : 
" I am not worthy, of my own desert, 
That thou shouldst answer me : but for her sake, 
Who hath vouchsafed my asking, spirit blest, 
That in thy joy art shrouded ! say the cause, 
Which bringeth thee so near : and wherefore, say, 
Doth the sweet symphony of Paradise 
Keep silence here, pervading with such sounds 
Of rapt devotion every lower sphere ? " 
" Mortal art thou in hearing, as in sight ;" 
Was the reply : " and what forbade the smile l 
Of Beatrice interrupts our song. 
Only to yield thee gladness of my voice, 
And of the light that vests me, I thus far 
Descend these hallow'd steps : not that more love 
Invites me ; for, lo ! there aloft 2 , as much 
Or more of love is witness'd in those flames : 
But such my lot by charity assign' d, 
That makes us ready servants, as thou seest, 
To execute the counsel of the Highest." 

" That in this court," said I, " O sacred lamp ! 
Love no compulsion needs, but follows free 
The eternal Providence, I well discern : 
This harder find to deem : why, of thy peers, 
Thou only, to this office, wert foredoom'd." 

I had not ended, when, like rapid mill, 
Upon its centre whirl'd the light ; and then 
The love that did inhabit there, replied : 

tain point of the ladder, made those different movements, which he has de- 
scribed as made by the birds. 1 What forbade the smile.] " Because it 
would haye overcome thee." 2 There aloft.] Where the other souls 
were. 

2 H 






(466) THE VISION. 74—1.7. 

" Splendour eternal, piercing through these folds. 
Its virtue to rny vision knits ; and thus 

H-fced, I] fts me so ab : * •:- m y self, 
That on the sovran essence, which it wells from. 
I have the power to gaze : and hence the joy, 
Wherewith I sparkle, equaling with my blaze 
The keenness of my sight. But not the soul 1 , 
That is in heaven most lustrous, nor the seraph, 
That hath his eyes most fix'd on God, shall solve 
What thou hast ask'd : for in the abyss it lies 
Of tk' everlas::: ig statute sank so low, 
That no created ken may : :110m it. 
And, to the mortal vrorld when thou return'st, 
Be this reported : that none henceforth dare 
Direct his fbotsteg s tc so dread a bourn. 
The mind, that here is radiant, on the earth 
Is wrapt in mist. Look then if she may do 
Below, what aaseth her ability 
When she is ta'en to heaven." By words like these 
Admonish' d, I the question urged no more ; 
And of the spirit humbly sued alone 
To instruct me of its state. u 'Twixt either shore 2 
Of Italy, nor distant from thy land, 
A stony ridge 3 ariseth ; in such sor:. 
The thunder doth not lift his voice so high. 
They call i: Catria 4 : at whose foot, a cell 
Is sacred to the lonely Eremite ; 
For worship set apart and holy rites/* 
A third time thus it spake ; then added : " There 
So firmly to God's service I adhered, 
That with no costlier viands than the juice 
Of olives, easily I pass'd the heats 
Of summer and the winter frosts ; content 
In heaven-ward musings. Rich were the returns 

1 Not the soidj] The particular ends of ProYidence being concealed 

from the Terr angels themselves. - i .: ..: . .-.r i : . : ." LrT^Tfi -jl± 

Adriatic gulf and the Mediterranean sea. 3 A stony ridge.'] A part of 

the ApeTrnrne. Gibbo is literally a " hunch.'* Thus Arehflochus calls the 
island of Thasus, ovov pax 1 *- See Gaisford's Poetae Minores GrascL, t. i. p. 
298. 4 Catria? Now the abbey of Santa Croce, in the duchy of Urbino, 
about half way between Gubbio and La Pergola. Here Dante Is said to 
haye resided for some time. See the life prefixed. 






108—125. PARADISE, Canto XXI. (467) 

And fertile, which that cloister once was used 
To render to these heavens : now 'tis fallen 
Into a waste so empty, that ere long 
Detection must lay bare its vanity. 
Pietro Damiano 1 there was I y-clept : 
Pietro the sinner, when before I dwelt, 
Beside the Adriatic 2 , in the house 
Of our blest Lady. Near upon my close 
Of mortal life, through much importuning 
I was constrained to wear the hat 3 , that still 
From bad to worse is shifted. — Cephas 4 came ; 
He came, who was the Holy Spirit's vessel 5 ; 
Barefoot and lean ; eating their bread, as chanced, 
At the first table. Modern Shepherds need 
Those who on either hand may prop and lead them, 
So burly are they grown ; and from behind, 
Others to hoist them. Down the palfrey's sides 
Spread their broad mantles, so as both the beasts 

1 Pietro Damiano.'] " S. Pietro Damiano obtained a great and well- 
merited reputation, by the pains he took to correct the abuses among the 
clergy. Ravenna is supposed to have been the place of his birth, about 1007. 
He was employed in several important missions, and rewarded by Stephen 
IX. with the dignity of cardinal, and the bishopric of Ostia, to which, how- 
ever, he preferred his former retreat in the monastery of Fonte Avellana, 
and prevailed on Alexander II. to permit him to retire thither. Yet he did 
not long continue in this seclusion, before he was sent on other embassies. 
He died at Faenza in 1072. His letters throw much light on the obscure 
history of these times. Besides them, he has left several treatises on sacred 
and ecclesiastical subjects. His eloquence is worthy of a better age." Tira- 
boschi, Storia della Lett. Ital. torn. iii. lib. iv. cap. ii. He is mentioned by 
Petrarch, de Vita Solit. lib. ii. § iii. cap. xvii. " Siquidem statum ilium, 
pompasque sseculi suis contribulibus linquens, ipse Italia? medio, ad sinis- 
trum Apennini latus, quietissimam solitudinem, de qua multa conscripsit, 
et quae vetus adhuc fontis Avellanse nomen servat, perituris honoribus pre- 
ferendam duxit, ubi non minus gloriose postmodum latuit quam innotuerat 
primum Roma?, nee dedecori illi fuit alti verticis rutilum decus squalenti 
cilicio permutasse." Petrarchce Opera, Basil. 1571. p. 266. 2 Beside 

the Adriatic.] Some editions and manuscripts have " fu," instead of " fui." 
According to the former of these readings, S. Pietro Damiano is made to 
distinguish himself from S. Pietro degli Onesti, surnamed "II Peccator," 
founder of the monastery of S. Maria del Porto, on the Adriatic coast, near 
Ravenna, who died 1119, at about eighty years of age. If it could be ascer- 
tained that there was no religious house dedicated to the blessed Virgin, be- 
fore that founded by Pietro degli Onesti, to which the other Pietro might 
have belonged, this reading would, no doubt, be preferable ; but at present 
it seems very uncertain which is the right. 3 The hat.] The cardinal's 

hat. 4 Cephas.] St. Peter. 5 The Holy Spirit's vessel] St. Paul. 
See Hell, Canto ii. 30. 

2 h 2 



(468) THE VISION. 126—133. 

Are cover' d with one skin. O patience ! thou 
That look'st on this, and dost endure so long." 
I at those accents saw the splendours down 
From step to step alight, and wheel, and wax, 
Each circuiting, more beautiful. Round this l 
They came, and stay'd them ; utter'd then a shout 
So loud, it hath no likeness here : nor I 
Wist what it spake, so deafening was the thunder. 



CANTO XXII 



ARGUMENT. 

He beholds many other spirits of the devout and contemplative ; and amongst 
these is addressed by Saint Benedict, who, after disclosing his own name 
and the names of certain of his companions in bliss, replies to the request 
made by our Poet that he might look on the form of the saint, without 
that covering of splendour, which then invested it; and then proceeds, 
lastly, to inveigh against the corruption of the monks. Next Dante 
mounts with his heavenly conductress to the eighth heaven, or that of the 
fixed stars, which he enters at the constellation of the Twins ; and thence 
looking back, reviews all the space he has past between his present station 
and the earth. 

Astounded, to the guardian of my steps 
I turn'd me, like the child, who always runs 
Thither for succour, where he trusteth most : 
And she was like the mother 2 , who her son 
Beholding pale and breathless, with her voice 
Soothes him, and he is cheer' d ; for thus she spake, 
Soothing me: " Know'st not thou, thou art in heaven ? 
And know'st not thou, whatever is in heaven, 
Is holy ; and that nothing there is done, 
But is done zealously and well ? Deem now, 
What change in thee the song, and what my smile 
Had wrought, since thus the shout had power to move 

thee ; 
In which, couldst thou have understood their prayers, 

1 Bound this.'] Round the spirit of Pietro Damiano. 

2 Like the mother.'] Come la madre, che '1 figliuol ascolta 

Dietro a se piangner, si volge, ed aspetta, 
Poi il prende per mano e da la volta. 

Fazio degli Uberti, Dittamondo, lib. iii. cap. 21. 



14—37. PARADISE, Canto XXII. (469) 

The vengeance l were already known to thee, 
Which thou must witness ere thy mortal hour. 
The sword of heaven is not in haste to smite, 
Nor yet doth linger ; save unto his seeming, 
Who, in desire or fear, doth look for it. 
But elsewhere now I bid thee turn thy view ; 
So shalt thou many a famous spirit behold." 

Mine eyes directing, as she will'd, I saw 
A hundred little spheres, that fairer grew 
By interchange of splendour. I remain'd, 
As one, who fearful of o'er-much presuming, 
Abates in him the keenness of desire, 
Nor dares to question ; when, amid those pearls, 
One largest and most lustrous onward drew, 
That it might yield contentment to my wish ; 
And, from within it, these the sounds I heard. 

" If thou, like me, beheld' st the charity 
That burns amongst us ; what thy mind conceives, 
Were utter'd. But that, ere the lofty bound 
Thou reach, expectance may not weary thee ; 
I will make answer even to the thought, 
Which thou hast such respect of. In old days, 
That mountain, at whose side Cassino 2 rests, 
Was, on its height, frequented by a race 3 



1 The vengeance?\ Beatrice, it is supposed, intimates the approaching 
fate of Boniface VIII. See Purgatory, Canto xx. 86. 2 Cassino.~\ A 
castle in the Terra di Lavoro. " The learned Benedictine, D. Angelo della 
Noce, in his notes on the chronicle of the monastery of Cassino, (Xot. cxi.) 
corrects the error of Cluverius and Eftenus, who describe Cassino as situated 
in the same place where the monastery now is ; at the same time commend- 
ing the veracity of our author in this passage, winch places Cassino on the 
side of the mountain, and joints out the monastery founded by Saint Bene- 
dict on its summit." Lombardi. s Frequented by a race.] Lombardi 
here cites an apposite passage from the writings of Pope Saint Gregory. 
u Mons tria millia, &c." Dialog, lib. ii. cap. 8. " The mountain rising 
for the space of three miles stretches its top towards the sky, where was a 
very ancient temple, in which, after the manner of the old heathens, Apollo 
was worshiped by the foolish rustics. On every side, groves had sprung 
up in honour of the false gods ; and in these, the mad multitude of unbe- 
lievers still tended on their unhallowed sacrifices. There then the man of 
God (Saint Benedict) arriving, beat in pieces the idols ; overturned the 
altar ; cut down the groves ; and, in the very temple of Apollo, built the 
shrine of Saint Martin, placing that of Saint John where the altar of Apollo 
had stood ; and, by his continual preaching, called the multitude that dwelt 
round about, to the true faith." 



(470) THE VISION. 38—66. 

Deceived and ill-disposed : and I it was *, 
Who thither carried first the name of Him, 
Who brought the soul-subliming truth to man. 
And such a speeding grace shone over me, 
That from their impious worship I reclaim'd 
The dwellers round about, who with the world 
Were in delusion lost. These other flames, 
The spirits of men contemplative, were all 
Enlivened by that warmth, whose kindly force 
Gives birth to flowers and fruits of holiness. 
Here is Macarius 2 ; Romoaldo 3 here; 
And here my brethren, who their steps refrain'd 
Within the cloisters, and held firm their heart." 

I answering thus : " Thy gentle words and kind, 
And this the cheerful semblance I behold, 
Not unobservant, beaming in ye all, 
Have raised assurance in me ; wakening it 
Full-blossom'cl in my bosom, as a rose 
Before the sun, when the consummate flower 
Has spread to utmost amplitude. Of thee 
Therefore intreat I, father, to declare 
If I may gain such favour, as to gaze 
Upon thine image by no covering veil'd." 

"Brother !" he thus rejoin' d, "in the last sphere 4 
Expect completion of thy lofty aim : 
For there on each desire completion waits, 
And there on mine ; where every aim is found 
Perfect, entire, and for fulfilment ripe. 
There all things are as they have ever been : 

1 I it was.] " A new order of monks, which in a mariner absorbed all the 
others that were established in the west, was instituted, A. D. 529, by Bene- 
dict of Nursia, a man of piety and reputation for the age he lived in." 
Madame' s Mosheim, Eccles. Hist. vol. ii. cent. vi. p. ii. c. ii. §6. 2 Maca- 
rius.'] There are two of this name enumerated by Mosheim among the 
Greek theologians of the fourth century, vol. i. cent. iv. p. xi. chap. ii. § 9. 
In the following chapter, § 10, it is said, " Macarius, an Egyptian monk, un- 
doubtedly deserves the first rank among the practical writers of this time, as 
his works displayed, some few things excepted, the brightest and most lovely 
portraiture of sanctity and virtue." 3 Romoaldo.'] S. Romoaldo, a native 
of Havenna, and the founder of the order of Camaldoli, died in 1027. He 
was the author of a commentary on the Psalms. 4 In the last sphere.] 

The Empyrean, where he afterwards sees Saint Benedict, Canto xxxii. 30. 
Beatified spirits, though they have different heavens allotted them, have all 
their seat in that higher sphere. 



67—101. PARADISE, Canto XXII. (471) 

For space is none to bound ; nor pole divides. 

Our ladder reaches even to that clime ; 

And so, at giddy distance, mocks thy view. 

Thither the patriarch Jacob l saw it stretch 

Its topmost round ; when it appear'd to him 

With angels laden. But to mount it now 

None lifts his foot from earth : and hence my rule 

Is left a profitless stain upon the leaves ; 

The walls, for abbey rear'd, turn'd into dens ; 

The cowls, to sacks choak'd up with musty meal. 

Foul usury doth not more lift itself 

Against God's pleasure, than that fruit, which makes 

The hearts of monks so wanton : for whate'er 

Is in the church's keeping, all pertains 

To such, as sue for heaven's sweet sake ; and not 

To those, who in respect of kindred claim, 

Or on more vile allowance. Mortal flesh 

Is grown so dainty, good beginnings last not 

From the oak's birth unto the acorn's setting. 

His convent Peter founded without gold 

Or silver ; I, with prayers and fasting, mine ; 

And Francis, his in meek humility. 

And if thou note the point, whence each proceeds, 

Then look what it hath err'd to ; thou shalt find 

The white grown murky. Jordan was turn'd back : 

And a less wonder, than the refluent sea, 

May, at God's pleasure, work amendment here." 

So saying, to his assembly back he drew : 
And they together cluster'd into one ; 
Then all roll'd upward, like an eddying wind. 

The sweet dame beckon' d me to follow them : 
And, by that influence only, so prevail'd 
Over my nature, that no natural motion, 
Ascending or descending here below, 
Had, as I mounted, with my pennon vied. 

1 The patriarch Jacob.] " And he dreamed, and behold, a ladder set 
upon the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven : and behold the angels 
of God ascending and descending on it." Gen. xxyiii. 12. So Milton, P. L. 
b. iii. 510. 

The stairs were such, as whereon Jacob saw 

Angels ascending and descending, bands 

Of guardians bright. 



(472) THE VISION. 102—132. 

So, reader, as my hope is to return 
Unto the holy triumph, for the which 
I oft-times wail my sins, and smite my breast ; 
Thou hadst been longer drawing out and thrusting 
Thy finger in the fire, than I was, ere 
The sign \ that followeth Taurus, I beheld, 
And enter'd its precinct. glorious stars ! 
light impregnate with exceeding virtue ! 
To whom whate'er of genius lifteth me 
Above the vulgar, grateful I refer ; 
With ye the parent 2 of all mortal life 
Arose and set, when I did first inhale 
The Tuscan air : and afterward, when grace 
Vouchsafed me entrance to the lofty wheel 3 
That in its orb impels ye, fate decreed 
My passage at your clinie. To you my soul 
Devoutly sighs, for virtue, even now, 
To meet the hard emprize that draws me on. 

" Thou art so near the sum of blessedness," 
Said Beatrice, ;i that behoves thy ken 
Be vigilant and clear. And, to this end, 
Or ever thou advance thee further, hence 
Look downward, and contemplate, what a world 
Already stretch' d under our feet there lies : 
So as thy heart may, in its blithest mood, 
Present itself to the triumphal throng, 
'Which, through the ethereal concave, comes rejoicing." 

I straight obey'd ; and with mine eye return'd 
Through all the seven spheres ; and saw this globe 4 
So pitiful of semblance, that perforce 
It moved my smiles : and him in truth I hold 

1 The sign.] The constellation of Gemini. 2 The parent.'] The snn 
was in the constellation of the Twins at the time of Dante's birth.. 3 The 
lofty wheel.] The eighth heaven ; that, of the fixed stars. 4 This globe.] 
So Chancer, Troilns and Cresseide. b. v. 

And down from thence fast he gan ayise 

This little spot of earth, that with the sea 

Embraced is, and fully gan despise 

This wretched world. 

All the world as to mine eye 

Xo more seemed than a prike. Temple of Fame, b. ii. 
Compare Cicero, Sornn. Scip. " Jam ipsa terra ita mini parva visa est," &c. 
Lucan, Phars. lib. ix. 11, and Tasso, G. L. c. xiv. st. 9, 10, 11. 



133—150. PARADISE, Canto XXII. (473) 

For wisest, who esteems it least ; whose thoughts 

Elsewhere are fix'd, him worthiest call and best. 

I saw the daughter of Latona shine 

"Without the shadow l , whereof late I deem'd 

That dense and rare were cause. Here I sustain'd 

The visage, Hyperion, of thy son 2 ; 

And mark'd, how near him with their circles, round 

Move Maia and Dione 3 ; here discern'd 

Jove's tempering 'twixt his sire and son 4 ; and hence, 

Their changes and their various aspects, 

Distinctly scann'd. Nor might I not descry 

Of all the seven, how bulky each, how swift ; 

Nor, of their several distances, not learn. 

This petty area, (o'er the which we stride 

So fiercely,) as along the eternal Twins 

I wound my way, appear'd before me all, 

Forth from the havens stretch' d unto the hills. 

Then, to the beauteous eyes, mine eyes return'd. 



CANTO XXHI. 



ARGUMENT. 

He sees Christ triumphing with his church. The Saviour ascends, followed 
by his virgin Mother. The others remain with Saint Peter. 

E'en as the bird, who midst the leafy bower 
Has, in her nest, sat darkling through the night, 
With her sweet brood ; impatient to descry 
Their wished looks, and to bring home their food, 
In the fond quest unconscious of her toil : 
She, of the time prevenient, on the spray, 
That overhangs their couch, with wakeful gaze 
Expects the sun ; nor ever, till the dawn, 
Removeth from the east her eager ken : 
So stood the dame erect, and bent her glance 

1 Without the shadmc] See Canto ii. 71. 2 Of thy son.] The sun. 

3 Maia and Dione.] The planets Mercury and Venus : Dione being the 
mother of the latter, and Maia of the former deity. 4 ' Twixt his sire and 
son.] Betwixt Saturn and Mars. 



(474) 



THE VISION. 



11—38, 



^Wistfully on that region \ where the sun 
Abateth most his speed ; that, seeing her 
Suspense and wondering, I became as one, 
In whom desire is waken'd, and the hope 
Of somewhat new to come fills with delight. 

Short space ensued ; I was not held, I say, 
Long in expectance, when I saw the heaven 
Wax more and more resplendent ; and, " Behold," 
Cried Beatrice, " the triumphal hosts 
Of Christ, and all the harvest gather 'd in, 
Made ripe by these revolving spheres." Meseem'd, 
That, while she spake, her image all did burn ; 
And in her eyes such fulness was of joy, 
As I am fain to pass unconstrued by. 

As in the calm full moon, when Trivia 2 smiles, 
In peerless beauty, 'mid the eternal nymphs 3 , 
That paint through all its gulfs the blue profound; 
In bright pre-eminence so saw I there 
O'er million lamps a sun, from whom all drew 
Their radiance, as from ours the starry train : 
And, through the living light, so lustrous glow'd 
The substance, that my ken endured it not. 

O Beatrice ! sweet and precious guide, 
W ho cheer'd me with her comfortable words : 
" Against the virtue, that o'erpowereth thee, 
Avails not to resist. Here is the Might 4 , 
And here the TTisdom, which did open lay 
The path, that had been yearned for so long, 



1 That region. ,] Towards the south, where the course of the sun appears 
less rapid, than when he is in the east or the west. 2 Trivia.] A name 

of Diana. 3 The eternal nymphs.] The stars. 
'Ez.Xava T£ kcct' aidepa, 
Aa/i7rdo', IV wkvOocu vvficfiai 

K IirirEvov(TL cV bpcpvaias. Eurip. Supp. 995. Edit. Barnes. 
Those starry nymphs, which dance about the pole. Drvmmond, Somiet. 
Musgrave and Herman would dismiss the word vv/Kpai, " nymphs," from 
this passage in Euripides ; but the use of it by our Author in the text, tends 
to prore that it is the genuine reading : and it is thus that poets of the most 
distant ages, and without any knowfedge of each other's writings, (for we 
can scarcely imagine Dante to have read the plays of Euripides,) may often 
protect one another against the verbal critics. Drunmiond, I believe, had 
learning enough to be indebted to either of his predecessors. Expressions 
somewhat similar, in Theocritus and TibuLLus, are observed by Markland. 
4 Tlie Might,'] Our Saviour. 



39—72. PARADISE, Canto XXIII. (475) 

Betwixt the heaven and earth.*' Like to the lire, 
That, in a cloud imprison' d, doth break out 
Expansive, so that from its womb enlarged, 
It falleth against nature to the ground ; 
Thus, in that heavenly banqueting, my soul 
Outgrew herself ; and, in the transport lost, 
Holds now remembrance none of what she was. 

" Ope thou thine eyes, and mark me : thou hast seen 
Things, that empower thee to sustain my smile." 

I was as one, when a forgotten dream l 
Doth come across him, and he strives in vain 
To shape it in his fantasy again : 
Whenas that gracious boon was proffer'd me, 
Which never may be cancel'd from the book 
Wherein the past is written. Now were all 
Those tongues to sound, that have, on sweetest milk 
Of Polyhymnia and her sisters, fed 
And fatten'd ; not with all their help to boot, 
Unto the thousandth parcel of the truth, 
My song might shadow forth that saintly smile, 
How merely, in her saintly looks, it wrought. 
And, with such figuring of Paradise, 
The sacred strain must leap, like one that meets 
A sudden interruption to his road. 
But he, who thinks how ponderous the theme, 
And that 'tis laid upon a mortal shoulder, 
May pardon, if it tremble with the burden. 
The track, our venturous keel must furrow, brooks 
No unribb'd pinnace, no self-sparing pilot. 

" Why doth my face," said Beatrice, " thus 
Enamour thee, as that thou dost not turn 
Unto the beautiful garden, blossoming 
Beneath the rays of Christ ? Here is the rose 2 , 
Wherein the Word Divine was made incarnate ; 



1 A forgotten dream.] You might as well 

Hunt half a day for a forgotten dream. 

Wordsworth, Hart-Leap Well. 

2 The rose.] The Virgin Mary, who, says Lombardi, is termed by the 
church, Rosa Mystica. " I was exalted like a palm-tree in Engaddi, and as 
a rose-plant in Jericho." Ecclesiasticus, xxiv. 14. 



(476) THE VISION. 73—105. 

And here the lilies *, by whose odour known 

The way of life was folio w'd." Prompt I heard 

Her bidding, and encounter'd once again 

The strife of aching vision. As, erewhile, [cloud, 

Through glance of sun-light, stream' d through broken 

Mine eyes a flower -besprinkled mead have seen ; 

Though veil'd themselves in shade : so saw I there 

Legions of splendours, on whom burning rays 

Shed lightnings from above ; yet saw I not 

The fountain whence they flow'd. gracious virtue ■! 

Thou, whose broad stamp is on them, higher up 

Thou didst exalt thy glory 2 , to give room 

To my o'erlabour'd sight ; when at the name 

Of that fair flower 3 , whom duly I invoke 

Both morn and eve, my soul with all her might 

Collected, on the goodliest ardour fix'd. 

And, as the bright dimensions of the star 

In heaven excelling, as once here on earth, 

Were, in my eye -balls livelily pourtray'd ; 

Lo ! from within the sky a cresset 4 fell, 

Circling in fashion of a diadem ; 

And girt the star ; and, hovering, round it wheel'd. 

Whatever melody sounds sweetest here, 
And draws the spirit most unto itself, 
Might seem a rent cloud, when it grates the thunder ; 
Compared unto the sounding of that lyre 5 , 
Wherewith the goodliest sapphire 6 , that inlays 
The floor of heaven, was crown'd. " Angelic Love 
I am, who thus with hovering flight enwheel 
The lofty rapture from that womb inspired, 
Where our desire did dwell : and round thee so, 
Lady of Heaven ! will hover ; long as thou 
Thy Son shalt follow, and diviner joy 

1 The lilies.] The Apostles. " And give ye a sweet savour as frankin- 
cense, and flourish, as a lily." Ecclesiasticus, xxxix. 14. 2 Thou didst 
exalt thy glory.] The divine light retired upwards, to render the eyes of 
Dante more capable of enduring the spectacle which now presented itself. 

s The name 

Of that fair floicer.] The name of the Virgin. 

4 A cresset.] The angel Gabriel. 5 That lyre.] By synecdoche, the 
lyre is put for the angel. 6 The goodliest sapphire^ The Virgin. 



106—134. PARADISE, Canto XXIII. (477) 

Shall from thy presence gild the highest sphere." 

Such close was to the circling melody : 
And, as it ended, all the other lights 
Took up the strain, and echoed Mary's name. 

The robe 1 , that with its regal folds enwraps 
The world, and with the nearer breath of God 
Doth burn and quiver, held so far retired 
Its inner hem and skirting over us, 
That yet no glimmer of its majesty 
Had stream' d unto me : therefore were mine eyes 
Unequal to pursue the crowned flame 2 , 
That towering rose, and sought the seed 3 it bore. 
And like to babe, that stretches forth its arms 
For very eagerness toward the breast, 
After the milk is taken ; so outstretch'd 
Their wavy summits all the fervent band, 
Through zealous love to Mary : then, in view, 
There halted; and " Regina Coeli 4 " sang 
So sweetly, the delight hath left me never. 

Oh ! what o'erflowing plenty is up-piled 
In those rich-laden coffers 5 , which below 
Sow'd the good seed, whose harvest now they keep. 
Here are the treasures tasted, that with tears 
Were in the Babylonian exile 6 won, 
When gold had fail'd them. Here, in synod high 
Of ancient council with the new convened, 
Under the Son of Mary and of God, 
Victorious he 7 his mighty triumph holds, 
To whom the keys of glory were assigned. 

1 The robe.] The ninth, heaven, the prinmm mo-hile, that enfolds and 
moves the eight lower heavens. 2 The crowned flame.'] The Virgin, 

with the angel hovering over her. 3 The seed.] Our Saviour. 4 Regina 
Coeli.] " The beginning of an anthem, sung by the church at Easter, in 
honour of our Lady." Volpi. 5 Those rich-laden coffers.] Those spirits, 
who, having sown the seed of good works on earth, now contain the fruit 
of their pious endeavours. 6 In the Babylonian exile.] During their 
abode in this world. 7 He.~] St. Peter, with the other holy men of the 
Old and New Testament. 



(478) THE VISION. 1— IS. 

CANTO XXIV. 



ARGUMENT. 

Saint Peter examines Dante touching Faith, and is contented with his 



answers. 



'"Ote! in chosen fellowship advanced 

To the great supper of the blessed Lamb, 

Whereon who feeds hath every wish fulfil? d : 

If to this man through God's grace be vouchsafed 

Foretaste of that, which from your table falls, 

Or ever death his fated term prescribe ; 

Be ye not heedless of his urgent will : 

But may some influence of your sacred dews 

Sprinkle him. Of the fount ye alway drink, 

TVhence flows what most he craves." Beatrice spake ; 

And the rejoicing spirits, like to spheres 

On firm-set poles revolving, trail' d a blaze 

Of comet splendour : and as wheels, that wind 

Their circles in the horologe, so work 

The stated rounds, that to the observant eye 

The first seems still, and as it flew, the last ; 

E'en thus their carols 1 weaving variously, 

They, by the measure paced, or swift, or slow, 

1 Their carols.] Carole. The annotator on the Monte Casino MS. ob- 
serves, " earolae dicuntur tripudiiun quoddam quod fit saliendo, ut Xapoii- 
tani faciunt et dicunt." The word had also that signification, which is now 
the only one that common use attaches to it. w Au tiers jour il s'en parthv ' 
(the king of Cyprus coming from Canterbury to Edward III.,) " et chevaucha 
le chemin de Londres ; et fit taut qu'il vint a Altem ; ou le roi se tenoit. et 
grand foison de Seigneurs appareilles pour le recevoir. Ce fut un dimenche 
a heure de releyee qu'il Tint la. Si eut entre celle heure et le souper grans 
danses et grans karolles. La etoit le jeune Seigneur de Coucy qui s'efforcoit 
de bien danser et de bien chanter quand son tour venoit, &c." Froissart, vol. 
i. cap. 219. Fol. edit. 1559. 

These folke, of which I tell you so, 

Upon a karole wenten tho : 

A ladie karoled hem, that hight 

Gladnesse. blissful! , and light, 

"Well could she sino- and lustelv. 

Chaucer, RomauntoftheRose, Edit. 1602, fol. 112. 

I saw her daunce so comely, 

Carol and sing so sweetly. 
Chaucer, The Dreame, orBooke oftheDuchesse, fol. 231. 



19—46. PARADISE, Canto XXIV. (479) 

Made me to rate the riches l of their joy. 

From that 2 , which I did note in beauty most 
Excelling, saw I issue forth a flame 
So bright, as none was left more goodly there. 
Kound Beatrice thrice it wheel'd about, 
With so divine a song, that fancy's ear 
Eecords it not ; and the pen passeth on, 
And leaves a blank : for that our mortal speech, 
Nor e'en the inward shaping of the brain, 
Hath colours fine enough to trace such folds 3 . 

" O saintly sister mine ! thy prayer devout 
Is with so vehement affection urged, 
Thou dost unbind me from that beauteous sphere." 

Such were the accents towards my lady breathed 
From that blest ardour, soon as it was stay'd ; 
To whom she thus : " O everlasting light 
Of him, within whose mighty grasp our Lord 
Did leave the keys, which of this wondrous bliss 
He bare below ! tent 4 this man as thou wilt, 
With lighter probe or deep, touching the faith, 
By the which thou didst on the billows walk. 
If he in love, in hope, and in belief, 
Be stedfast, is not hid from thee : for thou 
Hast there thy ken, where all things are beheld 
In liveliest portraiture. But since true faith 
Has peopled this fair realm with citizens ; 
Meet is, that to exalt its glory more, 
Thou, in his audience, shouldst thereof discourse." 

1 The riches. ,] Lombardi here reads with the Nidobeatina edition, " dalla 
richezza," instead of " della ricchezza," and construes it of the amplitude of 
the circles, according to which the Poet estimated their greater or less de- 
gree of Telocity. I have followed the other commentators. 2 From that.] 
Saint Peter. 3 Such folds. ] Pindar has the same bold image : 

VfXVUiV 7rTv*xals. O. 1. 170. 
which both the Scholiast and Heyne, I think erroneously, understand of 
the return of the strophes. Since this note was written, I have found the 
same interpretation of Pindar's expression as that I had adopted, in the 
manuscript notes on that poet collected by Mr. St. Amand, and preserved in 
the Bodleian Library, No. 42. "Notandum: maximum decus Yestimenti 
antiquitus si?ius existimabantur, ita ut yix unquam a poetis tarn Grsecis quam 
Latinis Testis pulchra describatur sine hoc adjuncto." 4 Tent J] Tenta. 
The word " tent," try, is used by our old writers, who, I think, usually 
spell it "taint;" as Massinger, Parliament of Love, act iv. sc. 3. "Do 
not fear, I have a staff to taint, and bravely." 



(480) THE VISION. 47—78. 

Like to the bachelor, who arms himself, 
And speaks not, till the master have proposed 
The question, to approve *, and not to end it ; 
So I, in silence, arm'd me, while she spake, 
Summoning up each argument to aid ; 
As was behoveful for such questioner, 
And such profession : u As good Christian ought, 
Declare thee, what is faith ? " Whereat I raised 
My forehead to the light, whence this had breathed ; 
Then turn'd to Beatrice ; and in her looks 
Approval met, that from their inmost fount 
I should unlock the waters. " May the grace, 
That giveth me the captain of the church 
For confessor," said I, " vouchsafe to me 
Apt utterance for my thoughts ;" then added : " Sire ! 
E'en as set down by the unerring style 
Of thy dear brother, who with thee conspired 
To bring Rome in unto the way of life, 
Faith 2 of things hoped is substance, and the proof 
Of things not seen ; and herein doth consist 
Methinks its essence." — " Rightly hast thou deem'd," 
Was answer'd ; "if thou well discern, why first 
He hath defined it substance, and then proof." 

" The deep things," I replied, " which here I scan 
Distinctly, are below from mortal eye 
So hidden, they have in belief alone 
Their being ; on which credence, hope sublime 
Is built : and, therefore substance, it intends. 
And inasmuch as we must needs infer 
From such belief our reasoning, all respect 
To other view excluded ; hence of proof 
The intention is derived." Forthwith I heard : 



1 To approve.] "Per approbarla." Landino has "aiutarla." "The 
bachelor, or disputant in the school, arms or prepares himself to discuss the 
question proposed by the master, whose business it is to terminate it." 
Such is Vellutello's interpretation ; and it has the merit of being, at least, 
more intelligible than Lombardi's, who, without reason, accuses the other 
commentators, except Venturi, (whose explanation he rejects,) of passing oyer 
the difficulty. 2 Faith.] Hebrews, xi. 1. So Marino, in one of his son- 
nets, which he calls Divozioni : 

Fede e sustanza di sperate cose, 
E delle non visibili argomento. 



79—97. PARADISE, Canto XXIV. (481) 

" If thus, whate'er by learning men attain, 
Were understood ; the sophist would want room 
To exercise his wit." So breathed the flame 
Of love ; then added : " Current l is the coin 
Thou utter'st, both in weight and in alloy. 
But tell me, if thou hast it in thy purse." 

" Even so glittering and so round," said I, 
" I not a whit misdoubt of its assay." 

Next issued 2 from the deep-imbosom , d splendour: 
" Say, whence the costly jewel, on the which 
Is founded every virtue, came to thee." 

" The flood," I answer'd, "from the Spirit of God 
Rain'd down upon the ancient bond and new 3 , — 
Here is the reasoning, that convinceth me 
So feelingly, each argument beside 
Seems blunt, and forceless, in comparison." 
Then heard I : " Wherefore boldest thou that each, 
The elder proposition and the new, 
Which so persuade thee, are the voice of heaven ? " 

1 Current.'] " The answer thon hast made, is right : but let me know if 
thy inward persuasion be conformable to thy profession." 2 Next issued.'] 
"We find that the more men have been acquainted with the practice of 
Christianity, the greater evidence they have had of the truth of it, and been 
more fully and rationally persuaded of it. To such I grant there are such 
powerful evidences of the truth of the doctrine of Christ by the effectual 
workings of the Spirit of God upon their souls, that all other arguments, as 
to their own satisfaction, may fall short of these. As to which, those verses 
of the poet Dantes, rendered into Latin by F. S., are very pertinent and sig- 
nificant ; for when he had introduced the Apostle Peter, asking him what 
it was which his faith was founded on, he answers, 

Deinde exivit ex luce profunda 

Quae illic splendebat pretiosa gemma, 

Super quam omnis virtus fundatur. 
i. e. That God was pleased by immediate revelation of himself, to discover 
that divine truth to the world whereon our faith doth stand as on its sure 
foundation ; but when the Apostle goes on to enquire how he knew this at 
first came from God, his answer to that is, 
larga pluvia 

Spiritus Sancti, quae est diffusa 

Super veteres et super novas membranas 

Est syllogismus ille qui earn niihi conclusit 

Adeo acute, ut pra? ilia demonstratione 

Omnis demonstratio alia mihi videatur obtusa. 
i. e. That the Spirit of God doth so fully discover itself both in the Old and 
New Testament, that all other arguments are but dull and heavy if compared 
with this." Stillingfleet, Or. Sa. b. ii. chap. ix. sect. xix. § 4. The reader 
will perceive that our learned divine has made an error in his quotation of 
this passage. 3 The ancient bond and new.] The Old and New Testament. 

2 I 



(482) 



THE VISION. 



98—112. 



" The works, that follow'd, evidence their truth ;" 
I answer'd : "Nature did not make for these 
The iron hot, or on her anvil mold them." 

" Who voucheth to thee of the works themselves," 
Was the reply, " that they in very deed 
Are that they purport ? None hath sworn so to thee." 

" That all the world 1 ," said I, " should have been turn'd 
To Christian, and no miracle been wrought, 
Would in itself be such a miracle, 
The rest were not an hundredth part so great. 
E'en thou went'st forth in poverty and hunger 
To set the goodly plant, that, from the vine 
It once was, now is grown unsightly bramble." 

That ended, through the high celestial court 
Resounded all the spheres, " Praise we one God ! " 



1 That all the world. ,] " We cannot conceive how the world should he at 
first induced to "believe without manifest and uncontrouled miracles. For as 
Chrysostom speaks, el arj/xELcov ^oopls ettemtclv, ttoWco /uleV^ov to Savfxa 
(paivETat. It was the greatest miracle of all, if the world shou'd believe 
without miracles. "Which the poet D antes hath well expressed in the twenty- 
fourth Canto of Paradise. For when the Apostle is there brought in, asking 
the Poet upon what account he took .the Scriptures of the Old and New Tes- 
tament to be the word of God ; his answer is, 

Probatio quae veruni hoc mini recludit, 
Sunt opera, qua? secuta sunt, ad qua? Natura 
Non candefecit ferrum unquam aut percussit incudem. 
i. e. The evidence of that is the Divine Power of miracles which was in those 
who deliver'd those things to the world. And when the Apostle catechiseth 
him further, how he knew those miracles were such as they pretended to be, 
viz. that they were true and divine ; his answer is, 

Si orbis terra? sese convertit ad Christianismum 
Inquiebam ego, sine miraculis ; hoc unum 
Est tale, ut reliqua non sint ejus centesima pars. 
i. e. If the world shou'd be converted to the Christian faith without mira- 
cles, this would be so great a miracle, that others were not to be compared 
with it. I conclude this, then, with that known saying of St. Austin, Quis- 
quis adhuc prodigia, ut ciedat, inquiret, magnum est ipse prodigium qui 
mundo credente non credit : He that seeks for miracles still to induce him 
to faith, when the world is converted to the Christian faith, he needs not 
seek for prodigies abroad ; he wants only a looking-glass to discover one. 
For, as he goes on, Unde temporibus eruditis, et omne quod fieri non potest 
respuentibus, sine ullis miraculis nimium mirabiliter incredibilia credidit 
mundus ? Whence came it to pass that in so learned and wary an age as that 
was which the Apostles preach'd in, the world without miracles should be 
brought to believe things so strangely incredible as those were which Christ 
and his Apostles preach'd." Stillingfleet, Or. Sa. b. ii. chap. x. sect. v. § 1. 
Donne, in his Sermons, (Vol. ii. p. 215, fol. edit.) quotes a similar passage 
from Augustine, and applies it to the demand for miracles, made by Roman 
Catholics on Protestants, 



113—146. PARADISE, Canto XXIV. (483) 

In song of most unearthly melody. 

And when that Worthy J thus, from branch to branch, 

Examining, had led me, that we now 

Approach' d the topmost bough ; he straight resumed : 

" The grace, that holds sweet dalliance with thy soul, 

So far discreetly hath thy lips unclosed ; 

That, whatsoe'er has past them, I commend. 

Behoves thee to express, what thou believest, 

The next ; and, whereon, thy belief hath grown." 

" saintly sire and spirit ! " I began, 
" Who seest that, which thou didst so believe, 
As to outstrip 2 feet younger than thine own, 
Toward the sepulchre ; thy will is here, 
That I the tenour of my creed unfold ; 
And thou, the cause of it, hast likewise ask'd. 
And I reply : I in one God believe ; 
One sole eternal Godhead, of whose love 
All heaven is moved, himself unmoved the while. 
Nor demonstration physical alone, 
Or more intelligential and abstruse, 
Persuades me to this faith : but from that truth 
It cometh to me rather, which is shed 
Through Moses ; the rapt Prophets ; and the Psalms ; 
The Gospel ; and what ye yourselves did write, 
When ye were gifted of the Holy Ghost. 
In three eternal Persons I believe ; 
Essence threefold and one ; mysterious league 
Of union absolute, which, many a time, 
The word of gospel lore upon my mind 
Imprints : and from this germ, this firstling spark 
The lively flame dilates ; and, like heaven's star, 
Doth glitter in me." As the master hears, 
Well pleased, and then enfoldeth in his arms 
The servant, who hath joyful tidings brought, 

1 That Worthy.'] Quel Baron. In the next Canto, St. James is called 
" Barone." So in Boccaccio, G. vi. N. 10, we find " Baron Messer Santo 
Antonio." 2 As to outstrip.] Venturi insists that the Poet has here 
11 made a slip ;" for that John came first to the sepulchre, though Peter was 
the first to enter it. But let Dante have leave to explain his own meaning, 
in a passage from his third book De Monarchia: "Dicit etiam Johannes 
ipsum (sciHcit Petrum) introiisse szibito, cum venit in monumentum, videns 
alium discipulum cunctantem ad ostium." p. 146. 

2 i 2 



(484) THE VISION. 147—151, 

And having told the errand keeps his peace ; 

Thus benediction uttering with song, 

Soon as my peace I held, compass'd me thrice 

The apostolic radiance, whose behest 

Had oped my lips : so well their answer pleased. 



CANTO XXV. 



ARGUMENT. 

Saint James questions our Poet concerning Hope. Next Saint John ap- 
pears ; and, on perceiving that Dante looks intently on him, informs him 
that he, Saint John, had left his body resolved into earth, upon the earth ; 
and that Christ and the Virgin alone had come with their bodies into 
heaven. 

If e'er the sacred poem, that hath made 

Both heaven and earth copartners in its toil, 

And with lean abstinence, through many a year, 

Faded my brow, be destined to prevail 

Over the cruelty, which bars me forth 

Of the fair sheep-fold l , where, a sleeping lamb, 

The wolves set on and fain had worried me ; 

With other voice, and fleece of other grain, 

I shall forthwith return ; and, standing up 

At my baptismal font, shall claim the wreath 

Due to the poet's temples : for I there 

First enter' d on the faith, which maketh souls 

Acceptable to God : and, for its sake 2 , 

Peter had then circled my forehead thus. 

Next from the squadron, whence had issued forth 
The first fruit of Christ's vicars on the earth, 
Toward us moved a light, at view whereof 
My Lady, full of gladness, spake to me : 
" Lo ! lo ! behold the peer of mickle might, 
That makes Galicia throng'd with visitants 3 ." 

1 The fair sheep-fold.] Florence, whence he was banished. 2 For its 
sake.] For the sake of that faith. 3 Galicia throng'd with visitants.] 

See Mariana, Hist. lib. xi. cap. xiii. " En el tiempo," &c. " At the time 
that the sepulchre of the apostle St. James was discovered, the devotion for 
that place extended itself not only over all Spain, but even round about to 
foreign nations. Multitudes from all parts of the world came to visit it. 
Many others were deterred by the difficulty of the journey, by the roughness 



21—33. PARADISE, Canto XXV. (485) 

As when the ring-dove by his mate alights ; 
In circles, each about the other wheels, 
And, murmuring, cooes his fondness : thus saw I 
One, of the other 1 great and glorious prince, 
With kindly greeting, hail'd ; extolling, both, 
Their heavenly banqueting : but when an end 
Was to their gratulation, silent, each, 
Before me sat they down, so burning bright, 
I could not look upon them. Smiling then, 
Beatrice spake : " life in glory shrined ! 
Who 2 didst the largess 3 of our kingly court 
Set down with faithful pen ; let now thy voice, 
Of hope the praises, in this height resound. 

and barrenness of those parts, and by the incursions of the Moors, who made 
captives many of the pilgrims. — The canons of St. Eloy, afterwards, (the pre- 
cise time is not known,) with a desire of remedying these evils, built, in 
many places, along the whole road, which reached as far as to France, 
hospitals for the reception of the pilgrims." In the Convito, p. 74, we find 
" la galassia, &c." " the galaxy, that is, the white circle which the common 
people call the way of St. James ;" on which Biscioni remarks : " The com- 
mon people formerly considered the milky way as a sign by night to pilgrims, 
who were going to St. James of Galicia ; and this perhaps arose from the re- 
semblance of the word galaxy to Galicia. I have often," he adds, " heard 
women and peasants call it the Roman road," " la strada di Roma." 

Lo there (quod he) cast up thine eye, 

Se yondir, lo ! the Galaxie, 

The whiche men clepe the milky way, 

For it is white, and some perfay, 

Ycallin it han Watlynge Strete. Chaucer, The House of Fame, b. ii. 
1 One, of the other.] Saint Peter and Saint James. 2 Who.] The 
Epistle of St. James is here attributed to the elder apostle of that name, 
whose shrine was at Compostella, in Galicia. Which of the two was the 
author of it, is yet doubtful. The learned and candid Michaelis contends 
very forcibly for its having been written by James the Elder. Lardner re- 
jects that opinion as absurd: while Benson argues against it, but is well 
answered by Michaelis, who, after all, is obliged to leave the question unde- 
cided. See his Introduction to the New Testament, translated by Dr. Marsh, 
ed. Cambridge, 1793, vol. iv. cap. xxvi. 5 1, 2, 3. Mr. Home supposes, that 
as the elder James " was put to death by Herod Agrippa, A. D. 44, (Acts xii.) 
it is evident that he was not the author of the epistle which bears the name 
of James, because it contains passages which refer to a later period, viz. v. 
1 — 8, which intimates the then immediately approaching destruction of Je- 
rusalem, and the subversion of the Jewish polity." Introduction to the Cri- 
tical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, Ed. 1818, vol. ii. p. 600. 
3 Largess.] He appears to allude to the Epistle of James, chap. i. v. 5. " If 
any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, 
and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." Or, to v. 17: "Every 
good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the 
Father of lights." Some editions, however, read " l'allegrezza," " joy," in- 
stead of " la larghezza." 



(436) THE VISION. 34—62. 

For well thou know'st, who figures t it as oft K 
As Jesus, to ve three, more brightly shone/' 

" Lift up thy head; and be thou strong in trust: 
For that, which hither from the mortal world 
Arriveth, must be ripen' d in our beam." 

Such cheering accents from the second flame 2 
Assured me ; and mine eyes I lifted up 3 
Unto the mountains, that had bow'd them late 
"With over-heavy burden. " Sith our Liege 
"Wills of his grace, that thou, or e'er thy death, 
In the most secret council with his lords 
Shouldst be confronted, so that having view'd 
The glories of our court, thou mayst therewith 
Thyself, and all who hear, invigorate 
With hope, that leads to blissful end : declare, 
What is that hope ? how it doth flourish in thee ? 
And whence thou hadst it ?" Thus, proceeding still, 
The second light : and she, whose gentle love 
My soaring pennons in that lofty flight 
Escorted, thus preventing me, rejoin 'd : 
" Among her sons, not one more full of hope, 
Hath the church militant : so 'tis of him 
Recorded in the sun, whose liberal orb 
Enlighteneth all our tribe : and ere his term 
Of warfare, hence permitted he is come, 
From Egypt to Jerusalem * to see. 
The other points, both which 5 thou hast inquired, 
Not for more knowledge, but that he may tell 
How dear thou hold'st the virtue ; these to him 

1 As oft.'] Landino and Venturi. who read M Quanto." explains this. :!:;.: 
the frequency with which James had commended the virtue of hope, was in 
proportion to the brightness in which Jesus had appeared at his transfigura- 
tion. Vellutello. who reads ; * Quante." supposes that James three times re- 
commends patient hope in the last chapter of his Epistle : and that Jesus, as 
many times, showed his brightness to the three disciples : once when he 
cleansed the lepers (Luke, v.) ; again when he raised the daughter of Jai'rus 
(Mark, t.) ; and a third time when he was transfigured. As to Lombardi. 
who also reads " Quante," his construction of the passage seems to me 
scarcely intelligible. 2 The second flame. ] St. James. 3 I lined up.] 
" I looked up to the Apostles." u I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills' 
from whence cometh my help." Psalm cxxi. 1. 4 From E :•; .;;: to Je- 

rusalem.] From the lower world to heaven. 3 Both v: One point 

Beatrice has herself answered; '"how that hope flourishes in him." The 
other two remain for Dante to resolve. 



63—94. PARADISE, Canto XXV. (487) 

Leave I : for he may answer thee with ease, 
And without boasting, so God give him grace." 

Like to the scholar, practised in his task, 
Who, willing to give proof of diligence, 
Seconds his teacher gladly; " Hope 1 ," said I, 
" Is of the joy to come a sure expectance, 
The effect of grace divine and merit preceding. 
This light from many a star, visits my heart ; 
But flow'd to me, the first, from him who sang 
The songs of the Supreme ; himself supreme 
Among his tuneful brethren. ' Let all hope 
In thee,' so spake his anthem 2 , 'who have known 
Thy name ; ' and, with my faith, who know not that ? 
From thee, the next, distilling from his spring, 
In thine epistle, fell on me the drops 
So plenteously, that I on others shower 
The influence of their dew." Whileas I spake, 
A lamping, as of quick and volley 'd lightning, 
Within the bosom of that mighty sheen 3 
Play'd tremulous ; then forth these accents breathed : 
"Love for the virtue, which attended me 
E'en to the palm, and issuing from the field, 
Glows vigorous yet within me ; and inspires 
To ask of thee, whom also it delights, 
What promise thou from hope, in chief, dost win." 

" Both scriptures, new and ancient," I replied, 
" Propose the mark (which even now I view) 
For souls beloved of God. Isaias 4 saith, 
1 That, in their own land, each one must be clad 
In twofold vesture ; ' and their proper land 
Is this delicious life. In terms more full, 
And clearer far, thy brother 5 hath set forth 



1 Hope.] This is from the Sentences of Petrus Lombardus. " Est antem 
spes virtus, qua spiritualia et aeterna bona sperantur, id est cum fiducia ex- 
pectantur. Est enim spes certa expectatio futurae beatitudinis, veniens ex 
Dei gratia et ex meritis praecedentibus vel ipsam spem, quam natura praeit 
charitas ut rem speratam, id est beatitudinem aeternam. Sine meritis enim 
aliquid sperare non spes, sed praesumptio dici potest." Pet. Lomb. Sent. 
lib. iii. dist. 26, Ed. Bas. 1486, fol. 2 His anthem.] " They that know 

thy name will put their trust in thee." Psalm ix. 10. 3 that mighty 

sheen.] The spirit of Saint James. 4 Isaias.] " He hath clothed me 

with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of right- 
eousness." Chap. lxi. 10. 5 Thy brother.] St. John in the Revelation, vii. 9. 



(488) THE VISION. 95—120. 

This revelation to us, where he tells 

Of the white raiment destined to the saints." 

And, as the words were ending, from above, 

" They hope in thee ! " first heard we cried : whereto 

Answer' d the carols all. Amidst them next, 

A light of so clear amplitude emerged, 

That winter's month l were but a single day, 

Were such a crystal in the Cancer's sign. 

Like as a virgin 2 riseth up, and goes, 
And enters on the mazes of the dance ; 
Though gay, yet innocent of worse intent, 
Than to do fitting honour to the bride : 
So I beheld the new effulgence come 
Unto the other two, who in a ring 
Wheel' d, as became their rapture. In the dance, 
And in the song, ifc mingled. And the dame 
Held on them fix'd her looks ; e'en as the spouse, 
Silent, and moveless. " This 3 is he, who lay 
Upon the bosom of our pelican : 
This he, into whose keeping, from the cross, 
The mighty charge was given." Thus she spake : 
Yet therefore nought the more removed her sight 
From marking them : or e'er her words began, 
Or when they closed. As he, who looks intent, 
And strives with searching ken, how he may see 
The sun in his eclipse, and, through desire 



1 Winter's month.'] " If a luminary, like that which, now appeared, were 
to shine throughout the month following the winter solstice, during which 
the constellation Cancer appears in the east at the setting of the sun, there 
would be no interruption to the light, but the whole month would be as a 
single day." a Like as a virgin^] There is a pretty counterpart to this 
simile in the Quadriregio of Frezzi. 

Poi come donna, che fa reverenza 

Lassando il ballo, taT atto fe ella. Lib. iv. cap. v. 

Then as a lady, when she leaves the dance, 
Maketh obeisance, even so did she. 

The same writer has another more like that in the text. 
Come donzella, c'ha a guidar la danza, 
Che a chi l'invita reyerenzia face, 
E po' incomincia vergognosa e manza, 
Cosi colei, &c. Lib. iv. cap. ii. 

3 This.] St. John, who reclined on the bosom of our Saviour, and to 
whose charge Jesus recommended his mother. 



121—139. PARADISE, Canto XXV. (489) 

Of seeing, loseth power of sight ; so I 1 
Peer'd on that last resplendence, while I heard : 
" Why dazzlest thou thine eyes in seeking that, 
Which here abides not ? Earth my body is, 
In earth ; and shall be, with the rest, so long, 
As till our number equal the decree 
Of the Most High. The two 2 that have ascended, 
In this our blessed cloister, shine alone 
With the two garments. So report below." 

As when, for ease of labour, or to shun 
Suspected peril, at a whistle's breath, 
The oars, erewhile dash'd frequent in the wave, 
All rest : the flamy circle at that voice 
So rested ; and the mingling sound was still, 
Which from the trinal band, soft-breathing, rose. 
I turn'd, but ah ! how trembled in my thought, 
When, looking at my side again to see 
Beatrice, I descried her not ; although, 
Not distant, on the happy coast she stood. 



CANTO XXVI. 



ARGUMENT. 

Saint John examines our Poet touching Charity. Afterwards Adam tells 
when he was created, and placed in the terrestrial Paradise ; how long he 
remained in that state ; what was the occasion of his fall ; when he was 
admitted into heaven ; and what language he spake. 

With dazzled eyes, whilst wondering I remain'd ; 

Forth of the beamy flame 3 , which dazzled me, 

Issued a breath, that in attention mute 

Detain'd me ; and these words it spake : " 'Twere well, 

That, long as till thy vision, on my form 

O'erspent, regain its virtue, with discourse 

Thou compensate the brief delay. Say then, 



1 So /.] He looked so earnestly, to descry whether St. John were pre- 
sent there in body, or in spirit only ; having had his doubts raised by that 
saying of our Saviour's : " If I will, that he tarry till I come, what is that 
to thee ? " 2 The tico.~\ Christ and Mary, whom he has described in the 
last Canto but one, as rising above his sight, 

3 The beamy fiame.'] St. John. 



(490) THE VISION. 8—40. 

Beginning, to what point thy soul aspires : 

And meanwhile rest assured, that sight in thee 

Is but o'erpower'd a space, not wholly quench'd ; 

Since thy fair guide and lovely, in her look 

Hath potency, the like to that, which dwelt 

In Ananias' hand 1 ." I answering thus: 

" Be to mine eyes the remedy, or late 

Or early, at her pleasure ; for they were 

The gates, at which she enter' d, and did light 

Her never-dying fire. My wishes here 

Are centred : in this palace is the weal, 

That Alpha and Omega is, to all 

The lessons love can read me." Yet again 

The voice, which had dispersed my fear when dazed 

With that excess, to converse urged, and spake : 

" Behoves thee sift more narrowly thy terms ; 

And say, who level'd at this scope thy bow." 

" Philosophy," said I, " hath arguments, 
And this place hath authority enough, 
To imprint in me such love : for, of constraint, 
Good, inasmuch as we perceive the good, 
Kindles our love ; and in degree the more, 
As it comprises more of goodness in 't. 
The essence then, where such advantage is, 
That each good, found without it, is nought else 
But of his light the beam, must needs attract 
The soul of each one, loving, who the truth 
Discerns, on which this proof is built. Such truth 
Learn I from him 2 , who shows me the first love 
Of all intelligential substances 
Eternal : from his voice I learn, whosG word 
Is truth ; that of himself to Moses saith, 
' I will make 3 all my good before thee pass : ' 

1 Ananias' hand.] "Who, by putting his hand on St. Paul, restored his 
sight. Acts, ix. 17. 2 From him.] Some suppose that Plato is here 

meant, who, in his Banquet, makes Pnaedrus say: o/jLoXoyslTaL o"Epa>s iv 
Tots 7rp£cr/3uTaTOts slvai, TrpscrfivTa.TO's ok cov, /ULEyiaTcov ayaQcov vfitv cutios 
k(TTLv. " Love is confessedly amongst the eldest of beings ; and being the 
eldest, is the cause to us of the greatest goods." Plat. Op. torn. x. p. 177. 
Bip. ed. . Others have understood it of x^ristotle ; and others, of the writer 
who goes by the name of Dionysius the Areopagite, referred to in the 
twenty-eighth Canto. 3 I will make.] Exodus, xxxiii. 19. 



41—78. PARADISE, Canto XXVI. (491) 

Lastly, from thee I learn, who chief proclaim'st 
E'en at the outset 1 of thy heralding, 
In mortal ears the mystery of heaven." 

" Through human wisdom, and the authority 
Therewith agreeing," heard I answer'd, " keep 
The choicest of thy love for Grod. But say, 
If thou yet other cords within thee feel'st, 
That draw thee towards him ; so that thou report 
How many are the fangs, with which this love 
Is grappled to thy soul." I did not miss, 
To what intent the eagle of our Lord 2 
Had pointed his demand ; yea, noted well 
The avowal which he led to ; and resumed : 
" All grappling bonds, that knit the heart to God, 
Confederate to make fast our charity. 
The being of the world ; and mine own being ; 
The death which He endured, that I should live ; 
And that, which all the faithful hope, as I do ; 
To the foremention'd lively knowledge join'd ; 
Have from the sea of ill love saved my bark, 
And on the coast secured it of the right. 
As for the leaves 3 , that in the garden bloom, 
My love for them is great, as is the good 
Dealt by the eternal hand, that tends them all." 

I ended : and therewith a song most sweet 
Rang through the spheres ; and " Holy, holy, holy," 
Accordant with the rest, my lady sang. 
And as a sleep is broken and dispersed 
Through ^sharp encounter of the nimble light, 
With the eye's spirit running forth to meet 
The ray, from membrane on to membrane urged ; 
And the upstartled wight loathes that he sees ; 
So, at his sudden waking, he misdeems 
Of all around him, till assurance waits 
On better judgment : thus the saintly dame 
Drove from before mine eyes the motes away, 
With the resplendence of her own, that cast 
Their brightness downward, thousand miles below. 

1 At the outset.] John, i. 1, &c. 2 The eagle of our Lord.] St 

John. 3 The leaves.] Created beings. 



(492) THE VISION. 79—108. 

Whence I my vision, clearer than before, 
Recover' d ; and well nigh astounded, ask'd 
Of a fourth light, that now with us I saw. 

And Beatrice : " The first living soul \ 
That ever the first virtue framed, admires 
Within these rays his Maker." Like the leaf, 
That bows its lithe top till the blast is blown ; 
By its own virtue rear'd, then stands aloof : 
So I, the whilst she said, awe- stricken bow'd. 
Then eagerness to speak embolden'd me ; 
And I began : " fruit ! that wast alone 
Mature, when first engender'd ; ancient father ! 
That doubly seest in every wedded bride 
Thy daughter, by affinity and blood ; 
Devoutly as I may, I pray thee hold 
Converse with me : my will thou seest : and I, 
More speedily to hear thee, tell it not." 

It chanceth oft some animal bewrays, 
Through the sleek covering 2 of his furry coat, 
The fondness, that stirs in him, and conforms 
His outside seeming to the cheer within : 
And in like guise was Adam's spirit moved 
To joyous mood, that through the covering shone, 
Transparent, when to pleasure me it spake : 
" No need thy will be told, which I untold 
Better discern, than thou whatever thing 
Thou hold'st most certain : for that will I see 
In Him, who is truth's mirror ; and Himself, 
Parhelion 3 unto all things, and nought else, 
To Him. This wouldst thou hear : how long since, God 



1 The first living soul.'] Adam. 2 Covering.'] Lombardi's explana- 
tion of this passage is somewhat ludicrous. By "un animal coverto," he 
understands, not an animal in its natural covering of fur or hair, but one 
drest up with clothes, as a dog, for instance, " so clad for sport ; " "un cane 
per trastullo coperto." Chaucer describes, as one of the tokens of pleasure in 
a dog, " the smoothing down of his hairs." 
It came and crept to me as low, 
Right as it had me yknow, 
Held down his head, and joyned his eares 
And laid all smooth downe his heares. 
The Dreame of Chaucer ', or Booh of the Duchesse, Ed. 1602, fol. 229. 
3 Parhelion.] Who enlightens and comprehends all things ; but is him- 
self enlightened and comprehended by none. 



109—133. PARADISE, Canto XXVI. (493) 

Placed me in that high garden, from whose bounds 

She led me up this ladder, steep and long ; 

What space endured my season of delight ; 

Whence truly sprang the wrath that banish'd me ; 

And what the language, which I spake and framed. 

Not that I tasted 1 of the tree, my son, 

Was in itself the cause of that exile, 

But only my transgressing of the mark 

Assign'd me. There, whence 2 at thy lady's hest 

The Mantuan moved him, still was I debarr'd 

This council, till the sun had made complete, 

Four thousand and three hundred rounds and twice, 

His annual journey ; and, through every light 

In his broad pathway, saw I him return, 

Thousand save seventy times, the whilst I dwelt 

Upon the earth. The language 3 I did use 

Was worn away, or ever Nimrod's race 

Their unaccomplishable work began. 

For nought 4 , that man inclines to, e'er was lasting ; 

Left by his reason free, and variable 

As is the sky that sways him. That he speaks, 

Is nature's prompting : whether thus, or thus, 

She leaves to you, as ye do most affect it. 

Ere I descended into hell's abyss, 

El 5 was the name on earth of the Chief Good, 

1 Not that I tasted.'] So Frezzi : 

per colpa fu 1' uom messo in bando, 

Non solamente per gustar del porno ; 
Ma perch' e' trapasso di Dio il comando. 

II Quadrir. lib. iv. cap. 1. 

2 Whence.] That is, from Limbo. See Hell, Canto ii. 53. Adam says 
that 5232 years elapsed from his creation to the time of his deliverance, 
which followed the death of Christ. 3 The language. ] Hac forma locu- 
tionis locutus est Adam, hac forma locnti sunt cmnes posteri ejus usque ad 
aedincationem turris Babel. De Vulg. Eloq. Kb. i. cap. vi. " This form of 
speech Adam used ; this, all his posterity until the building of the tower of 
Babel." * For nought.] There is a similar passage in the De Vulg. Eloq. 
lib. i. cap. ix. " Since, therefore, all our language, except that which was 
created together with the first man by God, has been repaired according to 
our own will and pleasure, after that confusion, which was nothing else 
than a forgetfulness of the former ; and since man is a being most unstable 
and variable, our language can neither be lasting nor continuous ; but, like 
other things which belong to us, as customs and dress, must be varied by 
distances of places and times." 5 El.] Some read U?i, " One," instead 
of El : but the latter of these readings is confirmed by a passage from Dante's 



(494) THE VISION. 134—141, 

Whose joy enfolds me : Eli then 'twas call'd. 
And so beseenieth : for, in mortals, use 1 
Is as the leaf upon the bough : that goes. 
And other comes instead. Upon the mount 
Most high above the waters, all my life 2 , 
Both innocent and guilty, did but reach 
From the first hour, to that which cometh next 
(As the sun changes quarter) to the sixth." 



CANTO XXVII. 



ARGUMENT. 

Saint Peter bitterly rebukes the covetousness of his si ra in :::■: Btpos- 

tolic sea, while all the heavenly host sympathize hi his indignation : they 
then vanish upwards. Beatrice bids Dante again cast his view below. 
Afterwards they are borne into the ninth heaven, of which she shows him 
the nature and properties ; blaming the perverseness of man, who places 
his will on low and perishable things. 

Then " Glory to the Father, to the Son. 
And to the Holy Spirit," rang aloud 
Throughout all Paradise ; that with the song 
My spirit reel'd, so passing sweet the strain. 
And what I saw was equal ecstasy : 
One universal smile 3 it seem'd of all things ; 
Joy past compare ; gladness unutterable ; 
Imperishable life of peace and love ; 
Exhaustless riches, and unmeasured bliss. 

Before mine eyes stood the four torches 4 lit : 
And that 5 , which first had come, began to wax 

Treatise de Yulg. Eloq. lib. i. cap. iv. " Quod prius vox primi loquentis 
sonaverit, viro sana? mentis in proinptu esse non dubito ipsuni fuisse quod 
Deus est, videlicet El." St. Isidore in the Origines, lib. vii. cap. i. had said, 
" Primuni apud Hebr?eos Dei nonien El dicitur." l Use.] From Horace. 
Ars Poet. 62. 2 All my life.] " I remained in the terrestrial Paradise 
only to the seventh hour." 'in the Historia Scolastica of Petri:? C ;:r.:s: r. 
it is said of our first parents : " Quidam tradunt eos fuisse in Paradiso sep- 
tem horas." f. 9. ed. Par. 1513, 4to. 

3 One universal smile. ] 

Ivi ogni cosa intorno m'assembrava 

ITn' allegrezza di giocondo riso. Frezzi, U Quadrir. lib. iv. cap. ii. 
all things smiled. Milton, P. L. b. viii. 2«>5. 

4 Four torches.] St. Peter, St. James, St. John, and Adam. : T : . .::'_ 
St. Peter, who looked as the planet Jupiter would, if it assumed the san- 
guine appearance of Mars. 



12—43. PARADISE, Canto XXYII. (495) 

In brightness ; and, in semblance, such became, 

As Jove might be, if he and Mars were birds, 

And interchanged their plumes. Silence ensued, 

Through the blest quire ; by Him, who here appoints 

Vicissitude of ministry, enjoin 'd ; 

When thus I heard : " Wonder not, if my hue 

Be changed ; for, while I speak, these shalt thou see 

All in like manner change with me. My place 

He 1 who usurps on earth, (my place, ay, mine, 

Which in the presence of the Son of God 

Is void,) the same hath made my cemetery 

A common sewer of puddle and of blood: 

The more below his triumph, who from hence 

Malignant fell." Such colour 2 , as the sun, 

At eve or morning, paints an adverse cloud, 

Then saw I sprinkled over all the sky. 

And as the unblemish'd dame, who, in herself 

Secure of censure, yet at bare report 

Of other's failing, shrinks with maiden fear ; 

So Beatrice, in her semblance, changed : 

And such eclipse in heaven, methinks, was seen, 

When the Most Holy sufFer'd. Then the words 

Proceeded, with voice, alter'd from itself 

So clean, the semblance did not alter more. 

" Not to this end was Christ's spouse with my blood, 

With that of Linus, and of Cletus 3 , fed ; 

That she might serve for purchase of base gold : 

But for the purchase of this happy life, 

Did Sextus, Pius, and Callixtus bleed, 

And Urban 4 ; they, whose doom was not without 

Much weeping seal'd. No purpose was of ours 5 , 

That on the right hand of our successors, 

1 He.] Boniface VIII. 

8 Such colour.] Qui color infectis adversi solis ab ictu 

Nubibus esse solet ; aut purpurea? Auroras. 

Ovid, Met. lib. iii. 184. 

3 Of Linus, and of Cletus.] Bisbops of Rome in the first century. 

4 Did Sextus, Pius, and Callixtus bleed, 

And Urban.] The former two, bisbops of the same see, in the second ; 
and the others, in the fourth century. b No purpose was of ours.] " We 
did not intend that our successors should take any part in the political divi- 
sions among Christians ; or that my figure (the seal of St. Peter) should 
serve as a mark to authorise iniquitous grants and privileges." 



(496) THE VISION. 44—73. 

Part of the Christian people should be set. 

And part upon their left ; nor that the keys. 

Which were vouchsafed me, should for ensign serve 

Unto the banners, that do levy war 

On the baptized : nor I, for sigil-mark, 

Set upon sold and lying privileges : 

Which makes me oft to bicker and turn red. 

In shepherd's clothing, greedy wolves 1 below 

Range wide o'er all the pastures. Arm of God ! 

Why longer sleep'st thou? Cahorsines and Gascons 2 

Prepare to quaff our blood. good beginning ! 

To what a vile conclusion must thou stoop. 

But the high providence, which did defend, 

Through Scipio, the world's empery for Rome, 

Will not delay its succour : and thou, son 3 , 

Who through thy mortal weight shalt yet again 

Return below, open thy lips, nor hide 

What is by me not hidden." As a flood 

Of frozen vapours streams adown the air, 

What time the she-goat 4 with her skiey horn 

Touches the sun ; so saw I there stream wide 

The vapours, who with us had linger d late, 

And with glad triumph deck the ethereal cope. 

Onward my sight their semblances pursued ; 

So far pursued, as till the space between 

From its reach sever'd them : whereat the guide 

Celestial, marking me no more intent 

On upward gazing, said, ' ; Look down, and see 

What circuit thou hast compast." From the hour 5 

When I before had cast my view beneath, 



1 Wolves.] Wolves shall succeed to teachers, arievous wolves. 

^ Milton, P.L. b. xii. 506. 

2 Cahorsines and Gascons.] He alludes to Jacques d'Ossa. a native of 
Cahors, who filled the papal chair in 1316, after it had been two years va- 
cant, and assumed the name of John XXII., and to Clement T. a Gascon, of 
whom see Hell, Canto xix. 86, and note. 3 Thou, son.] Beatrus Petrus — 
multaque locutus est, et docuit me de veteri testaraento. de hominibus etiam 
adhuc in seculo adhuc viventibas plura peccata intonuit mihi. precepitque. 
ut ea quae de illis audieram eis referrein. Alberici Yisio. £ 4-5. i The 
she-goat.] "When the sun is in Capricorn. 5 From the hour. J Since he 
had last looked (see Canto xxii.) he perceived that he had past from the 
meridian circle to the eastern horizon ; the half of our hemisphere, and a 
quarter of the heaven. 



74—107. PARADISE, Canto XXVII. (497) 

All the first region overpast I saw, 

Which from the midmost to the boundary winds ; 

That onward, thence, from Gades 1 , I beheld 

The unwise passage of Laertes' son ; 

And hitherward the shore 2 , where thou, Europa, 

Madest thee a joyful burden ; and yet more 

Of this dim spot had seen, but that the sun 3 , 

A constellation off and more, had ta'en 

His progress in the zodiac underneath. 

Then by the spirit, that doth never leave 
Its amorous dalliance with my lady's looks, 
Back with redoubled ardour were mine eyes 
Led unto her : and from her radiant smiles, 
Whenas I turn'd me, pleasure so divine 
Did lighten on me, that whatever bait 
Or art or nature in the human flesh, 
Or in its limn'd resemblance, can combine 
Through greedy eyes to take the soul withal, 
Were, to her beauty, nothing. Its boon influence 
From the fair nest of Leda 4 rapt me forth, 
And wafted on into the swiftest heaven. 

What place for entrance Beatrice chose, 
I may not say ; so uniform was all, 
Liveliest and loftiest. She my secret wish 
Divined ; and, with such gladness, that God's love 
Seem'd from her visage shining, thus began : 
" Here is the goal, whence motion on his race 
Starts : motionless the centre, and the rest 
All moved around. Except the soul divine, 
Place in this heaven is none ; the soul divine, 
Wherein the love, which ruleth o'er its orb, 
Is kindled, and the virtue, that it sheds : 
One circle, light and love, enclasping it, 
As this doth clasp the others ; and to Him, 



1 From Gades.] See Hell, Canto xxyi. 106. 2 The shore.'] Phoenicia, 
where Europa, the daughter of Agenor, mounted on the back of Jupiter, in 
his shape of a bull. 3 The sun.'] Dante was in the constellation of Gemini, 
and the sun in Aries. There was, therefore, part of those two constellations, 
and the whole of Taurus, between them. 4 The fair nest of Leda.] 
"From the Gemini;" thus called, because Leda was the mother of the 
twins, Castor and Pollux. 

2 K 



(498) THE VISION. 108—131. 

TVho draws the bound, its limit only known. 

Measured itself by none, it doth divide 

Motion to all, counted unto them forth, 

As by the fifth or half ye count forth ten. 

The vase, wherein time's roots 1 are plunged, thou seest : 

Look elsewhere for the leaves. mortal lust ! 

That canst not lift thy head above the waves 

Which whelm and sink thee down. The will in man 

Bears goodly blossoms ; but its ruddy promise 

Is, by the dripping of perpetual rain, 

Made mere abortion : faith and innocence 

Are met with but in babes ; each taking leave, 

Ere cheeks with down are sprinkled : he, that fasts 

"While yet a stammerer, with his tongue let loose 

Gluts every food alike in every moon : 

One, yet a babbler, loves and listens to 

His mother ; but no sooner hath free use 

Of speech, than he doth wish her in her grave. 

So suddenly doth the fair child of him 2 , 

Whose welcome is the morn and eve his parting, 

To negro blackness change her virgin white. 

u Thou, to abate thy wonder, note, that none 3 
Bears rule in earth ; and its frail family 
Are therefore wanderers. Yet before the date 4 , 



1 Time's roots.'] "Here." says Beatrice, "are tile roots, from whence 
time springs : for the parts, into "which it is divided, the other heavens must 
be considered." And she then breaks out into an exclamation on the de- 
generacy of human nature, which does not lift itself to the contemplation of 
divine things. Thus in the Quadriregio, lib. ii. cap. vi. 

II tempo, e'l ciel, che sopra noi e volto, 
E una cosa, e non voltando il cielo, 
Cio che da tempo pende saria tolto. 

Time, and the heaven that tumeth o'er our heads, 
Are but as one ; and if the heaven tum'd not, 
That, which depends on time, were done away. 

2 The fair child of him.'] There is something very similar in our Author's 
Treatise de Monarchic, lib. i. p. 1(M. " Humanum genus filius est coeli 
quod est perfectissimum in omni opere suo. Generat enim homo hominem 
et sol juxta secundum in Naturali Auditu." This, therefore, is intended 
for a philosophical truth, and not for a figure, as when Pindar calls "the 
day " " child of the sun : " 

'Afiioav 
Traltf 'AXlov. 01. ii. 59. 

3 No?ie.] Because, as has been before said, the shepherds are become 
wolves. 4 Before the date.'] " Before many ages are past ; before those 



132—138. PARADISE, Canto XXVII. (499) 

When, through the hundredth in his reckoning dropt, 

Pale January must be shoved aside 

From winter's calendar, these heavenly spheres 

Shall roar so loud, that fortune shall be fain l 

To turn the poop, where she hath now the prow ; 

So that the fleet run onward : and true fruit, 

Expected long, shall crown at last the bloom." 



CANTO XXVIII. 



ARGUMENT. 

Still in the ninth heaven, our Poet is permitted to behold the divine essence ; 
and then sees, in three hierarchies, the nine choirs of angels. Beatrice 
clears some difficulties which occur to him on this occasion. 

So she, who doth imparadise my soul, 

Had drawn the veil from off our present life, 

And bared the truth of poor mortality : 

When lo ! as one who, in a mirror, spies 

The shining of a flambeau at his back, 

Lit sudden ere he deem of its approach, 

And turneth to resolve him, if the glass 

Have told him true, and sees the record faithful 

As note is to its metre ; even thus, 

I well remember, did befal to me, 

Looking upon the beauteous eyes, whence love 

Had made the leash to take me. As I turn'd : 

fractions, which are dropt in the reckoning of every year, shall amount to so 
large a portion of time, that January shall be no more a winter month." 
By this periphrasis is meant " in a short time ; " as we say familiarly, such 
a thing will happen before a thousand years are over, when we mean, it will 
happen soon. Thus Petrarch: — 

Ben sa ch' il prova, e fiati cosa piana 

Anzi milT anni. Trionfo 6? Amove, cap. i. 

1 Fortune shall be fain.'] The commentators, in general, suppose, that 
our Poet here augurs that great reform, which he vainly hoped would follow 
on the arrival of the Emperor Henry VII. in Italy. Lombardi refers the 
prognostication to Can Grande della Scala : and when we consider that this 
Canto was not finished till after the death of Henry, as appears from the 
mention that is made of John XXII., it cannot be denied but the conjecture 
is probable. Troya (Veltro Allegorico, p. 186) suggests Matteo Visconti, or 
Castruccio Castracani, as the expected reformer. 

2 k 2 



(500) THE VISION. 13—45. 

And that which none, who in that volume 1 looks, 

Can miss of, in itself apparent, struck 

My view ; a point I saw, that darted light 

So sharp, no lid, unclosing, mav bear up 

Against its keenness. The least star we ken 

From hence, had seem'd a moon ; set by its side, 

As star by side of star. And so far off, 

Perchance, as is the halo from the light 

Which paints it, when most dense the vapour spreads ; 

There wheel'd about the point a circle of fire, 

More rapid than the motion which surrounds, 

Speediest, the world. Another this enring'd ; 

And that a third ; the third a fourth, and that 

A fifth encompass'd ; which a sixth next bound ; 

And over this, a seventh, following, reach'd 

Circumference so ample, that its bow, 

"Within the span of Juno's messenger, 

Had scarce been held entire. Beyond the seventh, 

Ensued yet other two. And every one. 

As more in number distant from the first, 

Was tardier in motion : and that glow'd 

With flame most pure, that to the sparkle of truth, 

Was nearest ; as partaking most, methinks, 

Of its reality. The guide beloved 

Saw me in anxious thought suspense, and spake : 

" Heaven, and all nature, hangs upon that point * 2 . 

The circle thereto most conjoin' d observe ; 

And know, that by intenser love its course 

Is, to this swiftness, wing'd." To whom I thus : 

" It were enough ; nor should I further seek. 

Had I but witness'd order, in the world 

Appointed, such as in these wheels is seen. 

But in the sensible world such difference 3 is, 

1 That volume.'] The ninth. heaTen ; as Yellutello, I think, rightly inter- 
prets it. 2 Heaven, and all nature, hangs upon that point.] zk tolclvti)? 
dpa ap^7]<5 vpTVTai 6 oupavd's teal f] <pvcri<s. Aristot. Metaph. lib. xii. c. 7. 
" From that beginning depend heaven and nature." 3 Such difference.] 
The material world and the intelligential (the copy and the pattern) appear 
to Dante to differ in this respect, that the orbits of the latter are more swift, 
the nearer they are to the centre, whereas the contrary is the case with the 
orbits of the former. The seeming contradiction is thus accounted for by 



46—74. PARADISE, Canto XXVIII. (501) 

That in each round shows more divinity, 
As each is wider from the centre. Hence, 
If in this wondrous and angelic temple, 
That hath, for confine, only light and love, 
My wish may have completion, I must know, 
Wherefore such disagreement is between 
The exemplar and its copy : for myself, 
Contemplating, I fail to pierce the cause." 

" It is no marvel, if thy fingers foil'd 
Do leave the knot untied : so hard 'tis grown 
For want of tenting." Thus she said : " But take," 
She added, " if thou wish thy cure, my words, 
And entertain them subtly. Every orb, 
Corporeal, doth proportion its extent 
Unto the virtue through its parts diffused. 
The greater blessedness preserves the more. 
The greater is the body (if all parts 
Share equally) the more is to preserve. 
Therefore the circle, whose swift course enwheels 
The universal frame, answers to that 
Which is supreme in knowledge and in love. 
Thus by the virtue, not the seeming breadth 
Of substance, measuring, thou shalt see the heavens, 
Each to the intelligence that ruleth it, 
Greater to more, and smaller unto less, 
Suited in strict and wondrous harmony." 

As when the north l blows from his milder cheek 
A blast, that scours the sky, forthwith our air, 
Clear'd of the rack that hung on it before, 

Beatrice. In the material world, the more ample the body is, the greater is 
the good, of which it is capable ; supposing all the parts to be equally per- 
fect. But in the intelligential world, the circles are more excellent and 
powerful, the more they approximate to the central point, which is God. 
Thus the first circle, that of the seraphim, corresponds to the ninth sphere, 
or primum mobile ; the second, that of the cherubim, to the eighth sphere, 
or heaven of fixed stars ; the third, or circle of thrones, to the seventh sphere", 
or planet of Saturn ; and in like manner throughout the two other trines of 
circles and spheres. 

In orbs 

Of circuit inexpressible they stood, 

Orb within orb. Milton, P. L. b. v. 596. 

1 The ?iorth.] By "ond' e piu leno," some understand that point from 
whence " the wind is mildest; " others, that " in which there is most force." 
The former interpretation is probably right. 



(502) THE VISION. 75—110. 

Glitters ? and. with his beauties all unveil'd, 
The firmament Ic oka forth serene, and smiles: 
Such was my cheer, when Beatrice droTe 
With clear reply the shadows back, and truth 
Was manifested, as a star in heaven. 
And when the words were ended, not unlike 
To iron in the furnace, every cirque, 
Ebullient, shot forth scintillating fires : 
And every sparkle shivering to new blaze, 
In number l did outmillion the account 
Reduplicate upon the chequer'd board. 
Then heard I echoing on, from choir to choir, 
" Hosanna," to the fixed point, that holds, 
And shall for ever hold them to their place, 
From everlasting, irremovable. 

Musing awhile I stood : and she. who saw 
My inward meditations, thus began : 
•• In the first circles, they, whom thou beheldsr. 
Are seraphim and cherubim. Thus swift 
Follow their hoops, in likeness to the point, 
Near as they can, approaching ; and they can 
The more, the loftier their vision. Those 
That round them zeet. gazing the Godhead next, 
Are thrones ; in whom the first trine ends. And all 
Are blessed, even as their sight descends 
Deeper into the truth, wherein rest is 
For every mind. /Thus happiness hath root 
In seeing, not in loving, which of sight 
Is aftergrowths And of the seeing snch 
The meed, as unto each, in due degree, 
Grace and good- will their measure have assign d. 
The other trine, that with still opening bads 
In this eternal springtide blossom Mr, 
Fearless of bruising from the nightly ram*, 
Breathe up in warbled melodies threefold 
Ho saunas, bleniiiig: ever : from tie three. 

1 In number.] The sparkles exceeded the number which would be pro- 
duced by Sic siz^v-four squares of a chess-board, if lor the first we reckoned 
one : for the next, two : for the third, four ; and so went on doubling to Hie 
end the account. - Fearless of bridging from the nightly ram.] Not 
injured, like the productions of our spring, by Hie influence of autumn, 
w^n :le ::h;Tt-2.~ :~ Aries rises s: r^ise:. 



111—130. PARADISE, Canto XXYIII. (503) 

Transmitted, hierarchy of gods, for aye 

Eejoicing ; dominations 1 first ; next them, 

Virtues ; and powers the third ; the next to whom 

Are princedoms and archangels, with glad round 

To tread their festal ring ; and last, the band 

Angelical, disporting in their sphere. 

All, as they circle in their orders, look 

Aloft ; and, downward, with such sway prevail, 

That all with mutual impulse tend to God. 

These once a mortal view beheld. Desire, 

In Dionysius 2 , so intensely wrought, 

That he, as I have done, ranged them ; and named 

Their orders, marshal'd in his thought. From him, 

Dissentient, one refused his sacred read. 

But soon as in this heaven his doubting eyes 

"Were open'd, Gregory 3 at his error smiled. 

Nor marvel, that a denizen of earth 

Should scan such secret truth ; for he had learnt 4 

Both this and much beside of these our orbs, 

From an eye-witness to heaven's mysteries." 



1 Dominations.] 

Hear, all ye angels, progeny of light, 

Thrones, dominations, princedoms, virtues, powers. 

Milton, P. L. b. v. 601. 

2 Dionysius.] The Areopagite, in his book de Coelesti Hierarchia. 

3 Gregory.] Gregory the Great. " Novem vero angelorum ordines dix- 
imus ; quia videlicet esse, testante sacro eloquio, scimus : Angelos, arch- 
angelos, virtutes, potestates, principatus, dominationes, thronos, cherubin 
atque seraphin." Divi Gregorii, Horn, xxxiv. f. 125, ed. Par. 1518, fol. 

4 He had learnt.] Dionysius, he says, had learnt from St. Paul. It is 
almost unnecessary to add, that the book, above referred to, which goes 
under his name, was the production of a later age. In Bishop Bull's seventh 
sermon, which treats of the different degrees of beatitude in heaven, there 
is much that resembles what is said on the same subject by our Poet. The 
learned prelate, however, appeal's a little inconsistent, when, after having 
blamed Dionysius the Areopagite, " for reckoning up exactly the several 
orders of the angelical hierarchy, as if he had seen a muster of the heavenly 
host before his eyes," (v. i. p. 3*13,) he himself then speaks rather more par- 
ticularly of the several orders in the celestial hierarchy, than he is warranted 
in doing by holy Scripture. 



(504) 



THE VISION. 



1—24. 



CANTO XXIX. 



ARGUMENT. 

Beatrice beholds, in the mirror of divine truth, some doubts which had 
entered the mind of Dante. These she resolves ; and then digresses into 
a vehement reprehension of certain theologians and preachers in those 
days, whose ignorance or avarice induced them to substitute their own 
inventions for the pure word of the Gospel. 

No longer J , than what time Latona's twins 

Cover'd of Libra and the fleecy star, 

Together both, girding the horizon hang ; 

In even balance, from the zenith poised ; 

Till from that verge, each, changing hemisphere, 

Part the nice level ; e'en so brief a space 

Did Beatrice's silence hold. A smile 

Sat painted on her cheek ; and her fix'd gaze 

Bent on the point, at which my vision fail'd : 

"When thus, her words resuming, she began : 

" I speak, nor what thou wouldst inquire, demand ; 

For I have mark'd it, where all time and place 

Are present. Not for increase to himself 

Of good, which may not be increased, but forth 

To manifest his glory by its beams ; 

Inhabiting his own eternity, 

Beyond time's limit or what bound soe'er 

To circumscribe his being ; as he will'd, 

Into new natures, like unto himself, 

Eternal love unfolded : nor before, 

As if in dull inaction, torpid, lay, 

For, not in process of before or aft 2 , 

Upon these waters moved the Spirit of God. 

Simple and mix'd, both form and substance 3 , forth 

1 No longer. ~\ As short a space, as the sun and moon are in changing 
hemispheres, wnen they are opposite to one another, the one under the sign 
of Aries, and the other under that of Libra, and both hang, for a moment, 
poised as it were in the hand of the zenith. 2 Fo?', not in process of 
before or aft.] There was neither "before nor after," no distinction, that 
is, of time, till the creation of the world. 3 Simple and mix'd, both form 

and substa?ice.~\ Simple and unmixed form answers to " pure intelligence," 
v. 33, (puro atto) the highest of created being ; simple and unmixed sub- 
stance, to " mere power," v. 33, (pura potenzia) the lowest ; and form mixed 
with substance, to " intelligence and power," v. 35, (potenzia con atto) that 



25—38. PARADISE, Canto XXIX. (505) 

To perfect being started, like three darts 

Shot from a bow three-corded. And as ray 

In crystal, glass, and amber, shines entire, 

E'en at the moment of its issuing ; thus 

Did, from the eternal Sovran, beam entire 

His threefold operation 1 , at one act 

Produced coeval. Yet, in order, each 

Created his due station knew : those highest, 

Who pure intelligence were made ; mere power, 

The lowest ; in the midst, bound with strict league, 

Intelligence and power, unsever'd bond. 

Long tract of ages by the angels past, 

Ere the creating of another world, 

Described on Jerome's pages 2 , thou hast seen. 

which holds the middle place between the other two. This, which appears 
sufficiently plain, Lombardi has contrived to perplex ; not being aware of 
the high sense in which our Poet here and elsewhere uses the word 
" forma,' ' as the Greek writers employed the term /j.oo<pi], and particularly 
Saint Paul, Philippians, ii. 6. The following is a remarkable instance in 
our language: " A man, though he have one form already, viz. the natural 
soul ; it hinders not but he may have also another, the quickening Spirit 
of God." Henry More, Disc. xiii. l His threefold operation.'] He means 
that spiritual beings, brute matter, and the intermediate part of the creation 
which participates both of spirit and matter, were produced at once. 

For, as there are three natures, schoolmen call 

One corporal only, th' other spiritual, 

Like single ; so there is a third commixt 

Of body and spirit together, placed betwixt 

Those other two. Ben Jonson, Eupheme. 

2 On Jerome's pages.] St. Jerome had described the angels as created 
long before the rest of the universe : an opinion which Thomas Aquinas con- 
troverted ; and the latter, as Dante thinks, had Scripture on his side. " Sex 
millia nondum nostri orbis implentur anni ; et quantas prius aeternitates, 
quanta tempora, quantas saeculorum origines fuisse arbitrandum est, in 
quibus Angeli, Throni, Dominationes, caeteraeque Virtutes servierint Deo ; 
et absque temporum vicibus atque mensuris Deo jubente substiterint." 
Hieronym. In Epist, ad Titum, 1. Paris edit. 1706, torn. iv. part i. p. 411. 
"Dicendum, quod supra hoc invenitur duplex sanctorum doctorum senten- 
tia, ilia tamen probabilior videtur, quod angeli simul cum creatura corporea 
sunt creati. Angeli enim sunt quaedam pars universi. Non enim constitu- 
unt per se unum universum, sed tarn ipsi quam creatura corporea in consti- 
tutionem unius universi conveniunt. Quod apparet ex ordine unius creaturse 
ad aliam. Ordo enim rerum adinvicem est bonum universi. Nulla autem 
pars perfecta est a suo toto separata. ' Non est igitur probabile, ut Deus cujus 
perfecta sunt opera, ut dicitur Deuteron. 32. creaturam angelicam seorsum 
ante alias creaturas creaverit. Quamvis contrarium non sit reputandum 
erroneum, praecipue propter sententiam Greg. Nazian. cujus tanta est in doc- 
trina Christiana authoritas, ut nullus unquam ejus dictis calumniam inferre 
praesumpserit sicut nee Athanasii Documentis, ut Hieron. dicit." Thomas 
Aqxdnas, Summa Theolog. P. l ma . Quaest. LXI. art. iii. 



(506) THE VISION. 39—68. 

But that what I disclose to thee is true, 

Those penmen *, whom the Holy Spirit moved, 

In many a passage of their sacred book, 

Attest ; as thou by diligent search shalt find : 

And reason 2 , in some sort, discerns the same, 

Who scarce would grant the heavenly ministers, 

Of their perfection void, so long a space. 

Thus when and where these spirits of love were made, 

Thou know'st, and how : and, knowing, hast allay' d 

Thy thirst, which from the triple question 3 rose. 

Ere one had reckon' d twenty, e'en so soon, 

Part of the angels fell : and, in their fall, 

Confusion to your elements 4 ensued. 

The others kept their station : and this task, 

"Whereon thou look'st, began, with such delight, 

That they surcease not ever, day nor night, 

Their circling. Of that fatal lapse the cause 

Was the curst pride of him, whom thou hast seen 

Pent 5 with the world's incumbrance. Those, whom here 

Thou seest, w r ere lowly to confess themselves 

Of his free bounty, who had made them apt 

For ministries so high : therefore their views 

Were, by enlightening grace and their own merit, 

Exalted ; so that in their will confirm'd 

They stand, nor fear to fail. For do not doubt, 

But to receive the grace, which Heaven vouchsafes, 

Is meritorious 6 , even as the soul 

With prompt affection welcometh the guest. 

Now, without further help, if with good heed 

My words thy mind have treasured, thou henceforth 

1 Those penmen.'] As in Genesis, i. 1, and Ecclesiasticus, xviii. 1. 

2 Reason.'] The heavenly ministers (motori) would have existed to no pur- 
pose if they had been created before the corporeal world, which they were to 
govern. 3 The triple question.] He had wished to know where, when, 
and how the angels had been created, and these three questions had been re- 
solved. 4 Elements.] Alimenti was sometimes put for elementi, by the 
old Tuscan writers. See the notes to Redi's Bacco in Toscana, vol. i. p. 
125. Redi, Opere, 8°. Milan. 1809. There is therefore no necessity for the 
alteration made in some editions. 5 Pent.] See Hell, Canto xxxiv. 105. 
6 Meritorious.] The collator of the Monte Casino MS. boasts of that 
being the only text which has " meritorio," " concistorio," and " adjutorio." 
The reading is probably right, but I find it is in Landino's edition of 1484, 
and Yellutello's of 1544 ; and it may, perhaps, be in many others. 



69—109. PARADISE, Canto XXIX. (507) 

This consistory round about niayst scan, 

And gaze thy fill. But, since thou hast on earth 

Heard vain disputers, reasoners in the schools, 

Canvass the angelic nature, and dispute 

Its powers of apprehension, memory, choice ; 

Therefore, 'tis well thou take from me the truth, 

Pure and without disguise ; which they below, 

Equivocating, darken and perplex. 

" Know thou, that, from the first, these substances, 
Rejoicing in the countenance of God, 
Have held unceasingly their view, intent 
Upon the glorious vision, from the which 
Nought absent is nor hid : where then no change 
Of newness, with succession, interrupts, 
Remembrance, there, needs none to gather up 
Divided thought and images remote. 

" So that men, thus at variance with the truth, 
Dream, though their eyes be open ; reckless some 
Of error ; others well aware they err, 
To whom more guilt and shame are justly due. 
Each the known track of sage philosophy 
Deserts, and has a by-way of his own : 
So much the restless eagerness to shine, 
And love of singularity, prevail. 
Yet this, offensive as it is, provokes 
Heaven's anger less, than when the book of God 
Is forced to yield to man's authority, 
Or from its straightness warp'd : no reckoning made 
What blood the sowing of it in the world 
Has cost ; what favour for himself he wins, 
Who meekly clings to it. The aim of all 
Is how to shine : e'en they, whose office is 
To preach the gospel, let the gospel sleep, 
And pass their own inventions off instead. 
One tells, how at Christ's suffering the wan moon 
Bent back her steps, and shadow'd o'er the sun 
With intervenient disk, as she withdrew : 
Another, how the light shrouded itself 
Within its tabernacle, and left dark 
The Spaniard, and the Indian, with the Jew. 
Such fables Florence in her pulpit hears, 



(508) THE VISION. 110—136. 

Bandied about more frequent, than the names 
Of Bindi and of Lapi 1 in her streets. 
The sheep 2 , meanwhile, poor witless ones, return 
From pasture, fed with wind : and what avails 
For their excuse, they do not see their harm ? 
Christ said not to his first conventicle. 
*' Go forth and preach impostures to the world.' 
But gave them truth 3 to build on : and the sound 
Was mighty on their lips : nor needed they ; 
Beside the Gospel, other spear or shield, 
To aid them in their warfare for the faith. 
The preacher 4 now provides himself with store 
Of jests and gibes ; and, so there be no lack 
Of laughter, while he vents them, his big cowl 
Distends, and he has won the meed he sought : 
Could but the vulgar catch a glimpse the while 
Of that dark bird which nestles in his hood, 
They scarce would wait to hear the blessing said, 
Which now the dotards hold in such esteem, 
That every counterfeit, who spreads abroad 
The hands of holy promise, rinds a throng 
Of credulous fools beneath. Saint Anthony 
Fattens with this his swine 5 , and others worse 
Than swine, who diet at his lazy board. 
Paying with unstampt metal' 5 for their fare. 

"But (for we far have wander dj let us seek 
The forward path again ; so as the way 

1 Of Bindi and of Lapi. ~\ Common names of men at Florence. 

2 The sheep. ,] So Milton, Lycidas. 

The hungry sheep look up and are not fed. 

But swoln with wind and the rank mist they draw, 

Rot inwardly. 

3 Gate them truth ^ "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel 
to every creature." Mark, xvi. 15. 4 The preacher.} Thus Cowper, 
Task, b. ii. 

"Tis pitiful 

To court a grin, when you should woo a soul. Sec. 
■Saint Anthony 



Fattens with this his sveine.'] On the sale of these blessi^r?. flic brothers 
of St. Anthony supported themselves and their paramours. From behind 
the swine of St. Anthony, our Poet levels a blow at the object of his in- 
veterate enmity. Boniface Till., from whom, "in 1297 flbey obtained the 
dignity and privileges of an independent congregation." See M:sheim's 
Eecles". History, in Dr. Maclaine's translation. V. ii. cent. xi. p. ii. c. ii. : 2S. 
6 With unstampt metal. I "With false indulgences. 



137—150. PARADISE, Canto XXIX. (509) 

Be shorten 'd with the time. No mortal tongue, 

Nor thought of man, hath ever reach'd so far, 

That of these natures he might count the tribes. 

What Daniel l of their thousands hath reveal'd, 

With finite number, infinite conceals. 

The fountain, at whose source these drink their beams, 

With light supplies them in as many modes, 

As there are splendours that it shines on : each 

According to the virtue it conceives, 

Differing in love and sweet affection. 

Look then how lofty and how huge in breadth 

The eternal might, which, broken and dispersed 

Over such countless mirrors, yet remains 

Whole in itself and one, as at the first." 



CANTO XXX. 



ARGUMENT. 

Dante is taken up with Beatrice into the empyrean ; and there haying his 
sight strengthened by her aid, and by the virtue derived from looking on 
the river of light, he sees the triumph of the angels and of the souls of the 
blessed. 

Noox's fervid hour perchance six thousand miles 2 
From hence is distant ; and the shadowy cone 
Almost to level on our earth declines ; 
When, from the midmost of this blue abyss, 
By turns some star is to our vision lost. 
And straightway as the handmaid of the sun 
Puts forth her radiant brow, all, light by light, 
Fade ; and the spangled firmament shuts in, 
E'en to the loveliest of the glittering throng. 
Thus vanish'd gradually from my sight 
The triumph, which plays ever round the point, 
That overcame me, seeming (for it did) 



1 Daniel.'] " Thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thou- 
sand times ten thousand stood before him." Daniel, vii. 10. 

- Six thousand ?niles.'] He compares the vanishing of the vision to the fad- 
ing away of the stars at dawn, when it is noon-day six thousand miles off, 
and the shadow, formed by the earth over the part of it inhabited by the 
Poet, is about to disappear. 



(510) THE VISION. 13—47. 

Engirt 1 by that it girdeth. "Wherefore love, 
With loss of other object, forced me bend 
Mine eyes on Beatrice once again. 

If all, that hitherto is told of her, 
Were in one praise concluded, 'twere too weak 
To furnish out this turn 2 . Mine eyes did look 
On beauty, such, as I believe in sooth, 
Not merely to exceed our human ; but, 
That save its Maker, none can to the full 
Enjoy it. At this point o'erpower'd I fail ; 
Unequal to my theme ; as never bard 
Of buskin or of sock hath fail'd before. 
For as the sun doth to the feeblest sight, 
E'en so remembrance of that witching smile 
Hath dispossest my spirit of itself. 
Not from that day, when on this earth I first 
Beheld her charms, up to that view of them, 
Have I with song applausive ever ceased 
To follow ; but now follow them no more ; 
My course here bounded, as each artist's is, 
When it doth touch the limit of his skill. 

She (such as I bequeath her to the bruit 
Of louder trump than mine, which hasteneth on, 
Urging its arduous matter to the close) 
Her words resumed, in gesture and in voice 
Resembling one accustom'd to command : 
"Forth 3 from the last corporeal are we come 
Into the heaven, that is unbodied light ; 
Light intellectual, replete with love ; 
Love of true happiness, replete with joy ; 
Joy, that transcends all sweetness of delight. 
Here shalt thou look on either mighty host 4 
Of Paradise ; and one in that array, 
Which in the final judgment thou shalt see." 

As when the lightning, in a sudden spleen 

1 Engirt.] " Appearing to be encompassed by these angelic bands, which 
are in reality encompassed by it." 

2 This turn.'] Questa vice. Hence perhaps Milton, P. L. b. viii. 491. 

This turn hath made amends. 

3 Forth.] From the ninth sphere to the empyrean, which is mere light. 

4 Either mighty host.] Of angels, that remained faithful, and of beatified 
souls ; the latter in that form which they will have at the last day. 



48—80. PARADISE, Canto XXX. (511) 

Unfolded, dashes from the blinding eyes 

The visive spirits, dazzled and bedimm'd ; 

So, round about me, fulminating streams 

Of living radiance play'd, and left me swathed 

And veil'd in dense impenetrable blaze. 

Such weal is in the love, that stills this heaven ; 

For its own flame 1 the torch thus fitting ever. 

No sooner to my listening ear had come 
The brief assurance, than I understood 
New virtue into me infused, and sight 
Kindled afresh, with vigour to sustain 
Excess of light however pure. I looked ; 
And, in the likeness of a river, saw 
Light flowing 2 , from whose amber-seeming waves 
Flash'd up effulgence, as they glided on 
'Twixt banks, on either side, painted with spring, 
Incredible how fair : and, from the tide, 
There ever and anon, outstarting, flew 
Sparkles instinct with life ; and in the flowers 
Did set them, like to rubies chased in gold : 
Then, as if drunk with odours, plunged again 
Into the wondrous flood ; from which, as one 
Re- enter 'd, still another rose. " The thirst 
Of knowledge high, whereby thou art inflamed, 
To search the meaning of what here thou seest, 
The more it warms thee, pleases me the more. 
But first behoves thee of this water drink, 
Or e'er that longing be allay'd." So spake 
The day-star of mine eyes : then thus subjoin' d : 
" This stream ; and these, forth issuing from its gulf, 
And diving back, a living topaz each ; 
With all this laughter on its bloomy shores ; 
Are but a preface, shadowy of the truth 3 

1 For its own flame.'] Thus disposing the spirits to receive its own beati- 
fic light. 2 Light flowing.] " And he shewed me a pure river of water 
of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the 
Lamb." Rev. xxii. 1. 

Underneath a bright sea flow'd 
Of jasper or of liquid pearl. Milton^ P. L. b. iii. 518. 
s Shadowy of the truth. ~] 

Son di lor vero ombriferi prefazii. 
So Mr. Coleridge, in his Religious Musings, v. 406. 
Life is a vision shadowy of truth. 



(512) 



THE VISION. 



81—116. 






They emblem : not that, in themselves, the things 
Are crude ; but on thy part is the defect, 
For that thy views not yet aspire so high." 

Never did babe that had outslept his wont, 
Rush, with such eager straining, to the milk, 
As I toward the water ; bending me, 
To make the better mirrors of mine eyes 
In the refining wave : and as the eaves 
Of mine eyelids l did drink of it, forthwith 
Seem'd it unto me turn'd from length to round. 
Then as a troop of maskers, when they put 
Their vizors off, look other than before ; 
The counterfeited semblance thrown aside : 
So into greater jubilee were changed 
Those flowers and sparkles ; and distinct I saw, 
Before me, either court 2 of heaven display'd. 

prime enlightener ! thou who gavest me strength 
On the high triumph of thy realm to gaze ; 
Grant virtue now to utter what I kenn'd. 

There is in heaven a light, whose goodly shine 
Makes the Creator visible to all 
Created, that in seeing him alone 
Have peace ; and in a circle spreads so far, 
That the circumference were too loose a zone 
To girdle in the sun. All is one beam, 
Reflected from the summit of the first, 
That moves, which being hence and vigour takes. 
And as some cliff* 3 , that from the bottom eyes 
His image mirror'd in the crystal flood, 
As if to admire his brave appareling 
Of verdure and of flowers ; so, round about, 
Eying the light, on more than million thrones, 
Stood, eminent, whatever from our earth 
Has to the skies return'd. How wide the leaves, 
Extended to their utmost, of this rose, 
Whose lowest step embosoms such a space 

— the eaves 



Of mine eyelids.] 
Macbeth, act i. sc. 3. 
3 As some cliff.] 
TEa- 



Thus Shakspeare calls the eyelids " penthouse lids.' 
2 Either court.] See note to v. 44. 

A lake, 

at to the fringed hank with myrtle crown'd 
Her crystal mirror holds. Milton, P. L. b. iv. 263. 



117—143. ' PARADISE, Canto XXX. (513) 

Of ample radiance ! Yet, nor amplitude 
Nor height impeded, but my view with ease l 
Took in the full dimensions of that joy. 
Near or remote, what there avails, where God 
Immediate rules, and Nature, awed, suspends 
Her sway ? Into the yellow of the rose 
Perennial, which, in bright expansiveness, 
Lays forth its gradual blooming, redolent 
Of praises to the never-wintering sun, 
As one, who fain would speak yet holds his peace, 
Beatrice led me ; and, " Behold," she said, 
" This fair assemblage ; stoles of snowy white, 
How numberless. The city, where we dwell, 
Behold how vast ; and these our seats so throng'd, 
Few now are wanting here. In that proud stall 2 , 
On which, the crown, already o'er its state 
Suspended, holds thine eyes — or e'er thyself 
Mayst at the wedding sup, — shall rest the soul 
Of the great Harry 3 , he who, by the world 
Augustus hail'd, to Italy must come, 
Before her day be ripe. But ye are sick, 
And in your tetchy wantonness as blind, 
As is the bantling, that of hunger dies, 
And drives away the nurse. Nor may it be, 
That he 4 , who in the sacred forum sways, 
Openly or in secret, shall with him 
Accordant walk : whom God will not endure 



1 My view with ease.] 

Far and wide his eye commands ; 

For sight no obstacle found here, nor shade, 

But all sun-shine. Milton, P. L. b. iii. 616. 

2 In that proud stall.~\ " Ostenditque mihi circa Paradisum lectum claris 
et splendidissimis operimentis adornatum — in quo lecto quendam jacere con- 
spexi cujus nomen ab Apostolo audivi, sed prohibuit ne cui illud dicerem." 
Alberici Visio, §31. 3 Of the great Harry.] The Emperor Henry VII. 
who died in 1313. " Henry, Count of Luxemburgh, held the imperial 
power three years, seven months, and eighteen days, from his first corona- 
tion to his death. He was a man wise, and just, and gracious ; brave and 
intrepid in arms ; a man of honour and a good catholic ; and although by 
his lineage he was of no great condition, yet he was of a magnanimous heart, 
much feared and held in awe ; and if he had lived longer, would have done 
the greatest things." G. Villani, lib. ix. cap. i. Compare Dino Compagni, 
Muratori, Iter. Ital. Script, torn. ix. lib. iii. p. 524, and Fazio degli Uberti, 
Dittamondo, 1. ii. cap. 30. * He.] Pope Clement Y. See Canto xxvii. 53. 

2 L 



(514) THE VISION. 144—145. 

P the holy office long ; but thrust him down 

To Simon Magus, where Alagna's priest 1 

Will sink beneath him : such will be his meed." 



CANTO XXXI. 



ARGUMENT. 

The Poet expatiates farther on the glorious vision described in the last Canto. 
On looking round for Beatrice, he finds that she has left him, and that 
an old man is at his side. This proves to be Saint Bernard, who shows 
him that Beatrice has returned to her throne, and then points out to him 
the blessedness of the Virgin Mother. 

Ls T fashion, as a snow white rose, lay then 

Before my view the saintly multitude 2 , 

Which in his own blood Christ espoused. Meanwhile, 

That other host 3 , that soar aloft to gaze 

And celebrate his glory, whom they love, 

Hover'd around ; and, like a troop of bees 4 , 

Amid the vernal sweets alighting now, 

Now, clustering, where their fragrant labour glows, 

Flew downward to the mighty flower, or rose 

From the redundant petals, streaming back 

Unto the stedfast dwelling of their joy. 

Faces had they of flame, and wings of gold 5 : 

The rest was whiter than the driven snow ; 

And, as they flitted down into the flower, 

From range to range, fanning their plumy loins, 

Whisper'd the peace and ardour, which they won 

From that soft winnowing. Shadow none, the vast 

Interposition of such numerous flight 

Cast, from above, upon the flower, or view 

Obstructed aught. For, through the universe, 

1 Alagna's pi , iest.~\ Pope Boniface VIII. Hell, Canto xix. 79. ' 

2 The saintly multitude.'] Human souls, advanced to this state of glory- 
through the mediation of Christ. 3 That other host.] The angels. 
4 Bees.] Compare Homer, Iliad, ii. 87. Virg. JEn. i. 430. and Milton, P. L. 
b. i. 768. 

5 Wings of gold.] the middle pair 



Skirted his loins and thighs with downy gold. 

Milton, P. L. b. t. 282, 



21—46. PARADISE, Canto XXXI. (515) 

Wherever merited, celestial light 
Glides freely, and no obstacle prevents. 

All there, who reign in safety and in bliss, 
Ages long past or new, on one sole mark 
Their love and vision fix'd. O trinal beam 
Of individual star, that charm'st them thus ! 
Vouchsafe one glance to gild our storm below 1 . 

If the grim brood 2 , from Arctic shores that roam'd, 
(Where Helice 3 for ever, as she wheels, 
Sparkles a mother's fondness on her son,) 
Stood in mute wonder 'mid the works of Rome, 
When to their view the Lateran arose 4 
In greatness more than earthly ; I, who then 
From human to divine had past, from time 
Unto eternity, and out of Florence 
To justice and to truth, how might I chuse 
But marvel too ? 'Twixt gladness and amaze, 
In sooth no will had I to utter aught, 
Or hear. And, as a pilgrim, when he rests 
Within the temple of his vow, looks round 
In breathless awe, and hopes some time to tell 
Of all its goodly state ; e'en so mine eyes 
Coursed up and down along the living light, 
Now low, and now aloft, and now around, 
Visiting every step. Looks I beheld, 
Where charity in soft persuasion sat ; 

1 To gild our storm beloic.~\ To guide us through the dangers to which we 
are exposed in this tempestuous life. 2 If the grim brood.] The northern 
hordes who invaded Rome. Landino justly observes, that " this is a most 
excellent comparison to show how great his astonishment was at beholding 
the realms of the blest." 3 Helice.] Callisto, and her son Areas, changed 
into the constellations of the Greater Bear and Arctophylax, or Bootes. See 
Ovid, Met. lib. ii. fab. v. vi, 

4 The Lateran arose.] 

quando Laterano 

Alle cose niortali ando di sopra. 

This reminds us of the celebrated passage in Akenside : 
Mark how the dread Pantheon stands, 
Amid the domes of modern hands. Ode xviii. b. i. 
It is remarkable that Dante has no allusion to the magnificence of Gothic 
architecture, which was then in so much perfection, and which, as Tirabos- 
chi endeavours to show, by a passage in Cassiodorus, describing its peculiar 
character of slender columns and lanceated arches, was introduced into Italy 
so earlv as the end of the fifth century. See Stor. della Lett. Ital. torn. iii. 
lib. i. * 

2 l 2 



(516) THE VISION. 47—87. 

Smiles from within, and radiance from above ; 
And, in each gesture, grace and honour high. 

So roved my ken, and in its general form 
All Paradise survey 'd : when round I turn'd 
"With purpose of my lady to inquire 
Once more of things, that held my thought suspense. 
But answer found from other than I ween'd ; 
For, Beatrice when I thought to see, 
I saw instead a senior, at my side, 
Robed, as the rest, in glory. Joy benign 
Glow'd in his eye, and o'er his cheek diffused, 
With gestures such as spake a father's love. 
And, "Whither is she vanish'd?" straight I ask'd. 

" By Beatrice summon' d," he replied, 
" I come to aid thy wish. Looking aloft 
To the third circle from the highest, there 
Behold her on the throne, wherein her merit 
Hath placed her." Answering not, mine eyes I raised, 
And saw her, where aloof she sat, her brow 
A wreath reflecting of eternal beams. 
Not from the centre of the sea so far 
Unto the region of the highest thunder, 
As was my ken from hers ; and yet the form 
Came through that medium down, unmix' d and pure. 

" O lady ! thou in whom my hopes have rest ; 
Who, for my safety, hast not scorn' d, in hell 
To leave the traces of thy footsteps mark'd ; 
For all mine eyes have seen, I to thy power 
And goodness, virtue owe and grace. Of slave 
Thou hast to freedom brought me : and no means, 
For my deliverance apt, hast left untried. 
Thy liberal bounty still toward me keep : 
That, when my spirit, which thou madest whole, 
Is loosen' d from this body, it may find 
Favour with thee." So I my suit preferr'd : 
And she, so distant, as appear'd, look'd down, 
And smiled ; then towards the eternal fountain turn'd. 

And thus the senior, holy and revered : 
" That thou at length mayst happily conclude 
Thy voyage, (to which end I was dispatch' d, 
By supplication moved and holy love,) 



88—105. PARADISE, Canto XXXI. (517) 

Let thy upsoaring vision range, at large, 
This garden through : for so, by ray divine 
Kindled, thy ken a higher flight shall mount ; 
And from heaven's queen, whom fervent I adore, 
All gracious aid befriend us ; for that I 
Am her own faithful Bernard 1 ." Like a wight, 
Who haply from Croatia wends to see 
Our Veronica 2 ; and the while 'tis shown, 
Hangs over it with never-sated gaze, 
And, all that he hath heard revolving, saith 
Unto himself in thought : " And didst thou look 
E'en thus, O Jesus, my true Lord and God ? 
And was this semblance thine ?" So gazed I then 
Adoring ; for the charity of him 3 , 
Who musing, in this world that peace enjoy'd, 
Stood livelily before me. " Child of grace ! " 
Thus he began : " thou shalt not knowledge gain 
Of this glad being, if thine eyes are held 

1 Bernard.] St. Bernard, the venerable abbot of Clairvaux, and the 
great promoter of the second crusade, who died A. D. 1153, in his sixty-third 
year. His sermons are called by Henault, " chefs-d'ceuvres de sentiment et 
de force." Abrege Chron. de * Hist, de Fr. 1145. They have even been 
preferred to all the productions of the ancients, and the author has been 
termed the last of the fathers of the church. It is uncertain whether they were 
not delivered originally in the French tongue. Ibid. That the part he acts 
in the present poem should be assigned to him, appears somewhat remark- 
able, when we consider that he severely censured the new festival established 
in honour of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, and " opposed the 
doctrine itself with the greatest vigour, as it supposed her being honoured 
with a privilege which belonged to Christ alone." Dr. Maclai?ie , s Mosheim, 
vol. iii. cent. xii. part ii. c. iii. § 19. 

- Our Veronica.] A vernicle had he sewed upon his cappe. 

Chaucer, Prol. to the Canterbury Tales. 

" Vernicle, climinutive of Veronike, Fr. A copy in miniature of the 
picture of Christ, which is supposed to have been miraculously imprinted 
upon a handkerchief preserved in the church of St. Peter at Rome. Du 
Cange in v. Veronica. Madox, Form. Angl. 1. p. 428. Testam. Joh. de 
NevQl. an. 1386. Item Domino Archiepiscopo Eborum fratri meo, vesti- 
mentum rubeum de velvet cum le verouike (r. Veronike) in granis rosarum 
de super Brondata (r. broudata). It was usual for persons returning from 
pilgrimages, to bring with them certain tokens of the several places which 
they had visited ; and therefore the Pardoner, who is just arrived from 
Rome, is represented with a vernicle sewed upon his cappe. See Pierce 
Plowman, 28, b." Tynchitt's Glossary to Chaucer. Our Poet alludes to 
this custom in his Vita Xuova, p. 275. " Avvenne in quel tempo, &c." 
" It happened, at that time, that many people were going to see that blessed 
image, which Jesus Christ left to us for a pattern of his most beautiful 
form, which my lady now beholds in glory." 3 Him.] St. Bernard. 



(51S) 



THE VISION. 



105—132. 



Still in this depth below. But search around 

The circles, to the furthest, till thou spy 

Seated in state, the queen 1 , that of this realm 

Is sovran.'' Straight mine eves I raised: and bright, 

As. at the birth of morn, the eastern clime 

Above the horizon, where the sun declines : 

So to mine eyes, that upward, as from vale 

To mountain sped, at the extreme bound, a part 

Excell'd in lustre all the front opposed. 

Amd as the glow burns ruddiest o'er the wave. 

That waits the ascending team, which Phaeton 

HI knew to guide, and on each part the light 

Diminish'd fades, intensest in the midst : 

So burn'd the peaceful orirlamb 2 . and slack'd 

On every side the living rlame decay "d. 

And in that midst their sportive pennons waved 

Thousands ol angels : in resplendence each 

Distinct, and quaint adornment. At their glee 

And carol, smiled the Lovely One of heaven. 

That joy was in the eyes of all the blest. 

Had I a tongue in eloquence as rich. 
As is the colouring in fancy's loom. 
'Twere all too poor to utter the least part 
Of that enchantment. When he saw mine eyes 
Intent on her. that charm'd him : Bernard gazed 
"With so exceeding fondness, as infused 
Ardour into mv breast, unfelt before. 



qu< 



r 



neen.] TheVii 

: HjlL?^ drS Pel 
Old- 

De ce 

Sans 



Liiri 



b.]' Menace on this word 
nme Gh.vart. 



ure a' autre anaire. 



1—29. PARADISE, Canto XXXII. (519) 



canto xxxn. 



ARGUMENT. 

Saint Bernard shows him, on their several thrones, the other blessed souls, 
both of the old and new Testament ; explains to him that their places are 
assigned them by grace, and not according to merit ; and lastly, tells him 
that if he would obtain power to descry what remained of the heavenly 
vision, he must unite with him in supplication to Mary. 

Freely the sage, though wrapt in musings high, 

Assumed the teacher's part, and mild began : 

"The wound, that Mary closed, she 1 open'd first, 

Who sits so beautiful at Mary's feet. 

The third in order, underneath her, lo ! 

Rachel with Beatrice : Sarah next ; 

Judith ; Rebecca ; and the gleaner-maid, 

Meek ancestress 2 of him, who sang the songs 

Of sore repentance in his sorrowful mood. 

All, as I name them, down from leaf to leaf, 

Are, in gradation, throned on the rose. 

And from the seventh step, successively, 

Adown the breathing tresses of the flower, 

Still doth the file of Hebrew dames proceed. 

For these are a partition wall, whereby 

The sacred stairs are sever'd, as the faith 

In Christ divides them. On this part, where blooms 

Each leaf in full maturity, are set 

Such as in Christ, or e'er he came, believed. 

On the other, where an intersected space 

Yet shows the semicircle void, abide 

All they, who look'd to Christ already come. 

And as our Lady on her glorious stool, 

And they who on their stools beneath her sit, 

This way distinction make ; e'en so on his, 

The mighty Baptist that way marks the line, 

(He who endured the desert, and the pains 

Of martyrdom, and, for two years 3 , of hell, 

Yet still continued holy,) and beneath, 

1 She.'] Eve. 2 Ancestress .] Ruth, the ancestress of David. 

3 Tico years J] The time that elapsed between the death of the Baptist 
and his redemption by the death of Christ. 



: ■:•: 



E VISION. 



•v—:-. . 



; Francis 2 ; Benedict 3 ; and die rest, 
Thus far from round to round. So heaven's decree 
Forecasts, this garden equally to fill, 

h in either view, past or to come. 



TV--' 



Bu: kav~ 
On 5^: ■:: 

Err :'::■ : 

Ani. if t' 

Their ;1: 

- Here 

Thv Jab: 
Ex:'l--:,i 
>': mere 
A Law L= 
>~:r is ti 
Ess:-:- 
I: is - ::. 
O'ersT-rr-: 
Are sife 
Oar >:": 

i-i:-- a 

Tka: wis! 



that downward from the step, which cleaves, 
e twain compartments, none there are 
obtain for merit of their own, 
Dgli : biers' merit been advanced, 
: i ns i a : i ri ts all released, 
-s-rlTr.s :be~ bar ::t : : ~er :o chrase. 
.: nark ana bsren :: ;:-i well 
sh loi ka in 1 voice k :lare as much. 
ben: a.s :h:u arm I knew :hv ".;.;":; ; 



I 



era 



Fr:na this reabrn 



W :: : 
Ani 
Ana 
In b 



I well 

5> 4 r^i:~5. 
w:„j •;: ~ ; e . 
5> inar^'i 

:~ha.s are sabi 



Vv% 






61—90. PARADISE, Canto XXXII. (521) 

To have struggled in the womb. Therefore, as grace 

Inweaves the coronet, so every brow 

Weareth its proper hue of orient light. 

And merely in respect to his prime gift, 

Not in reward of meritorious deed, 

Hath each his several degree assign'd. 

In early times with their own innocence 

More was not wanting, than the parents' faith, 

To save them : those first ages past, behoved 

That circumcision in the males should imp 

The flight of innocent wings : but since the day 

Of grace hath come, without baptismal rites 

In Christ accomplish'd, innocence herself 

Must linger yet below. •* Now raise thy view 

Unto the visage most resembling Christ : 

For, in her splendour only, shalt thou win 

The power to look on him. ,, Forthwith I saw 

Such floods of gladness on her visage shower 'd, 

From holy spirits, winging that profound ; 

That, whatsoever I had yet beheld, 

Had not so much suspended me with wonder, 

Or shown me such similitude of God. 

And he, who had to her descended, once, 

On earth, now hail'd in heaven ; and on poised wing, 

" Ave, Maria, Gratia Plena," sang : 

To whose sweet anthem all the blissful court, 

From all parts answering, rang: that holier joy 

Brooded the deep serene. " Father revered ! 

Who deign'st, for me, to quit the pleasant place 

Wherein thou sittest, by eternal lot ; 

Say, who that angel is, that with such glee 

Beholds our queen, and so enamour' d glows 

Of her high beauty, that all fire he seems." 

So I again resorted to the lore 
Of my wise teacher, he, whom Mary's charms 
Embellish'd, as the sun the morning star ; 

The elder shall serve the younger." Mom. ix. 10, 11, 12. Care must be taken 
that the doctrine of election is not pushed further than St. Paul appears to 
have intended by this text, which regards the preference of the Jews to the 
Gentiles, and not merely the choice of particular persons, without any respect 
to merit. 



(522) THE VISION. 97—134. 

Who thus in answer spake : ;; In him am suram'cL 
"Wkate'er of buxonmess and free delight 
May be in spirit, or in angel, met : 
And so beseems : for that he bare the palm 
Down unto Mary, when the Son of &od 
Vouchsafed to clothe him in terrestrial weed?. 
Xow let thine eyes wait heedful ou my word? ; 
And note thou of this just and pious realm 
The ehiefest nobles. Those, highest in bliss. 
The twain, on each hand next our empress throned. 
Are as it were two roots unto this rose : 
He to the left, the parent, whose rash taste 
Proves bitter to his seed : and. on the right. 
That ancient father of the holy church, 
Into whose keeping Christ did give the keys 
Of this sweet flower : near whcm bekolfi the seer 1 . 
That, ere he died, saw all the grievous times 
Of the fair bride, who with the lance cue nails 
TTas won. And. near unto the other, rests 
The leader, under wh;m. en manna, fed 
The ungrateful nation, riekle ana perverse. 
On the other part, feeing to Peter. 1: ! 
"Where Anna sits, so well content to lock 
On her loved daughter, that with moveless eye 
She chants the loud hosanna : while, opposed 
To the first father of your mortal kin 
Is Lucia 2 , at whose hest thy lady sped. 
"When on the edge of ruin closed thine eye. 
"But (for the vision hasteneth to an end 
Here break we off as the gen:! workman doth. 
That shapes the cloak according to the cloth: 
And to the primal love our ken -hall rise ; 
That thou mayst penetrate the brightness, far 
As sight can bear thee. Yet. alas ! in sooth 
Beating thy pennons, thinking to advance. 
Thou backward falFst. Grace then must first be gain'd : 
Her grace, whose might can help thee. Thou in prayer 
Seek her : and, with affection, whilst I sue. 



1 7 r 1 St. John. 2 Lucia.] See Hell, Canto iL 97, and Pnrga- 

torv, ix. 50. 



135, 136.- PARADISE, Canto XXXII. (523) 

Attend, and yield ine all thy heart." He said ; 
And thus the saintly orison began. 



CANTO XXXIII. 



ARGUMENT. 

Saint Bernard supplicates the Virgin Mary that Dante may have grace given 
hirn to contemplate the brightness of the Divine Majesty, which is ac- 
cordingly granted ; and Dante then himself prays to God for ability to 
show forth some part of the celestial glory in his writings. Lastly, he is 
admitted to a glimpse of the great mystery ; the Trinity, and the Union 
of Man with God. 

" virgin mother ! , daughter of thy Son ! 
Created beings all in lowliness 
Surpassing, as in height above them all ; 
Term by the eternal counsel pre-ordain'd ; 
Ennobler of thy nature, so advanced 
In thee, that its great Maker did not scorn, 
To make himself his own creation 2 ; 

1 O virgin mother '.] 

Thon maide and mother daughter of thy son, 

Thou wel of mercy, sinful soules cure, 

In whom that God of bountee chees to won ; 

Thou humble and high over every creature, 

Thou nobledest so far forth our nature, 

That no disdaine the maker had of kinde 

His son in blood and flesh to clothe and winde. 

Within the cloistre blisful of thy sides 
Toke mannes shape the eternal love and pees, 
That of the trine compas Lord and guide is, 
Whom erthe, and sea, and heven out of rellees 
Ay herien ; and thou virgin wemmeles 
Bare of thy body (and dweltest maiden pure) 
The Creatour of every creature. 

Assembled in thee magnificence 
With mercy, goodness, and with such pitee, 
That thou that art the sunne of excellence 
Not only helpest hem that praisen thee, 
But oftentime of thy benignitee 
Ful freely, or that men thin helpe beseche, 
Thou goest beforne, and art hir lives leche. 

Chaucer, The Second Nonnes Tale. 
In the stanza preceding these, Chaucer alludes to St. Bernard's writings. 
And thou that art floure of virgins all, 
Of whom that Bernard list so well to write. 

2 To make himself his own creation.'] Is on si sdegno di farsi sua fattura. 
I had translated this line, 



Himself in his own work enclosed to dwell, 



(524) THE VISION. 8-36. 

For in thy womb rekindling shone the love 

Eeveal'd. whose genial influence makes now 

This flower to germin in eternal peace : 

Here thou to us. of charity and love. 

Art. as the noon-day torch : and art, beneath. 

To mortal men, of hope a living spring. 

So mighty art thou. ladv. and so £reat. 

That he. who grace desireth, and comes not 

To thee for aidance, fain would have desire 1 

Fly without wings. ZS ot only him. who asks. 

Thy bounty succours : but doth freelv oft 

Forerun the asking. Whatsoe'er may be 

Of excellence in creature, pity mild. 

Relenting mercy, large munificence, 

Are all combined in thee. Here kneeleth one, 

"Wlio of all spirits hath review'd the state, 

From the world's lowest gap unto this height. 

Suppliant to thee he kneels, imploring grace 

For virtue yet more high, to lift his ken 

Toward the bliss supreme. And I, who ne'er 

Coveted sight, more fondly, for myself, 

Than now for him, my prayers to thee prefer, 

(And pray they be not scant,) that thou wouldst drive 

Each cloud of his mortality away, 

Through thine own prayers 2 , that on the sovran joy 

Unveil' d he gaze. This yet, I pray thee, Queen, 

Who canst do what thou wilt : that in him thou 

Wouldst, after all he hath beheld, preserve 

Affection sound, and human passions quell. 

and have corrected it at the suggestion of my friend, the Rev. William 
Digby. who points out a parallel passage in Bishop Hopkins, on the Lord'? 
Prayer, Ed. 1692. p. 190. '• In Him omnipotence became weak ; eternity, 
mortal : innocence itself, guilty : God, man ; the Creator, a creature ; the 
Maker of all. his own workmanship.' 5 

1 Desire.] Lo his desire woli the withouten winges. 

Chaucer, Trci'us and Cresseide, lib. hi. 
Che '1 desiderio sempre move Fale 

Dietro all' oggetto della mente appreso. 

Frezzi. 77 Quadrir. lib. hi. cap. 3. 

2 Through thine oxen prayers.] Here again I am indebted to Mr. Digby 
for noticing the omission of •'• co'"prieghi tuoi" in my former translation of 
the passage, which stood thus : 

That on the sovran pleasure he may gaze. 
This also I entreat of thee, queen. 



37—73. PARADISE, Canto XXXIII. (525) 

Lo ! where, with Beatrice, many a saint 

Stretch their clasp'd hands, in furtherance of my suit." 

The eyes, that heaven with love and awe regards, 
Fix'd on the suitor, witness'd, how benign 
She looks on pious prayers : then fasten 'd they 
On the everlasting light, wherein no eye 
Of creature, as may well be thought, so far 
Can travel inward. I, meanwhile, who drew 
Near to the limit, where all wishes end, 
The ardour of my wish (for so behoved) 
Ended within me. Beckoning smiled the sage, 
That I should look aloft : but, ere he bade, 
Already of myself aloft I look'd ; 
For visual strength, refining more and more, 
Bare me into the ray authentical 
Of sovran light. Thenceforward, what I saw, 
Was not for words to speak, nor memory's self 
To stand against such outrage on her skill. 

As one, who from a dream awaken 'd, straight, 
All he hath seen forgets ; yet still retains 
Impression of the feeling in his dream ; 
E'en such am I : for all the vision dies, 
As 'twere, away ; and yet the sense of sweet, 
That sprang from it, still trickles in my heart. 
Thus in the sun-thaw is the snow unseal'd ; 
Thus in the winds on flitting leaves was lost 
The Sibyl's sentence l . O eternal beam ! 
(Whose height what reach of mortal thought may soar ?) 
Yield me again some little particle 
Of what thou then appearedst ; give my tongue 
Power, but to leave one sparkle of thy glory, 
Unto the race to come, that shall not lose 
Thy triumph wholly, if thou waken aught 
Of memory in me, and endure to hear 
The record sound in this unequal strain. 

Such keenness 2 from the living ray I met, 
That, if mine eyes had turn'd away, methinks, 

1 The Sibyl's sentence.] Virg. JEn. iii. 44o. 

8 Such keenness. 1 th' air 

No where so clear, sharpen'd his visual ray, 

To objects distant far. Milton, P. L. b. iii. 821. 



CS26) 



THE VISION. 



7-1—95. 



I had been lost : but. so emboldpn'd. on 
I pass'd. as I remember, till my view 
Hover'd the brink of dread infinitude. 

grace, unenvying 01 thy be m ! that sravest 
Boldness to hx so earnestly my ken 
On the everlasting splendour, that I look'cL 
TThile sight was unconsumed : and. in that depth 
Saw in one volume clasp" d of love, whate'er 
The universe unfolds : all properties l 
Of substance and ol accident, beheld. 
Com]: junded. yet one individual light 
The whole. And of such bond methinks I saw 
The universal form ; for that whene'er 
I do but speak of it. my soul dilates 
Beyond her proper self ; and. till I speak. 
One moment- seems a longer lethargy. 
Than hve-and-twenty ages had appear'd 
To that emprize. that first made ISeptune wen 
At Argo's shadow 3 darkening on his hb : 

With fixed heed, suspense and motionless. 
Wondering I gazed ; and admiration still 
"Was kindled as I gazed. It mav not be. 
That one. who looks upon that light, can turn 
To other object, willingly, his view. 
For all the good, that will mav covet, there 



1 A'\r .-_. : - :. ; ' Til"'? ::: bca bane, aab. tS :: Plato, i: is argued that ah 
conceivable caiantities ana qualities. however ; am: '_:::rv. are necessarily 
inherent in our idea of a nniTerse or unity. 2 One moment.] " A mo- 
ment seems to me mere aehmas. t'nan nm-ambommv am ; "raid have ap- 



pear 
Lorn 



tune 
tenc 



Carabai. Di X _ : Prb e: b a 15. 
The wondred Argo. which in wiiadrcns piece 
Firs: through the Ensine seas t ere all the bi^er of Greece. 

Spenser, Faery Queen, b. ii. c. 12. st. 44. 



99—128. PARADISE, Canto XXXIII. (527) 

Is summ'd ; and all, elsewhere defective found, 

Complete. My tongue shall utter now, no more 

E'en what remembrance keeps, than could the babe's, 

That yet is moisten'd at his mother's breast. 

Xot that the semblance of the living light 

Was changed, (that ever as at first remain'd,) 

But that my vision quickening, in that sole 

Appearance, still new miracles descried, 

And toil'd me with the change. In that abyss 

Of radiance, clear and lofty, seem'd, methought, 

Three orbs of triple hue, dipt in one bound 1 : 

And, from another, one reflected seem'd, 

As rainbow is from rainbow : and the third 

Seem'd fire, breathed equally from both. O speech ! 

How feeble and how faint art thou, to give 

Conception birth. Yet this to what I saw 

Is less than little 2 . O eternal light ! 

Sole in thyself that dwell' st ; and of thyself 

Sole understood, past, present, or to come ; 

Thou smiledst 3 , on that circling 4 , which in thee 

Seem'd as reflected splendour, while I mused ; 

For I therein, methought, in its own hue 

Beheld our image painted : stedfastly 

I therefore pored upon the view. As one, 

Who versed in geometric lore, would fain 

Measure the circle ; and, though pondering long 

And deeply, that beginning, which he needs, 

Finds not : e'en such was I, intent to scan 

The novel wonder, and trace out the form, 

How to the circle fitted, and therein 

1 Three orbs of triple hue, dipt in one bound.'] The Trinity. This pas- 
sage may be compared to what Plato, in his second Epistle, enigmatically 
says of a first, second, and third, and of the impossibility that the human 
soul should attain to what it desires to know of them, by means of any 
thing akin to itself. 

2 Less than little.'] Che '1 pavon vi parrebbe men che poco. 

Fazio degli Uberti, Dittamondo, 1. ii. cap. 5. 

3 Thou smiledst.] Some MSS. and editions instead of " intendente te a 
me arridi," hare " intendente te ami ed arridi," ; ' who, understanding thy- 
self, loyest and enjoyest thyself; " which Lombardi thinks much preferable. 

4 That circling.] The second of the circles, " Light of Light," in which 
he dimly beheld the mystery of the incarnation. 



(528) 



THE VISION. 



129- 



How placed : but the flight was not for my wing ; 
Had not a flash darted athwart my mind, 
And, in the spleen, unfolded what it sought. 

Here vigour fail'd the towering fantasy : 
But yet the will roll'd onward, like a wheel 
In even motion, by the love impell'd, 
That moves the sun in heaven and all the stars. 



THE END. 



INDEX OF PROPER NAMES, 

BITHEB EXPRESSLY MENTIONED, OR SUPPOSED TO BE REFERRED TO, 
IN THE PRECEDING POEM. 



Abbagliato, H. xxix. 129. 

Abbati, Par. xvi. 109. 

Abbati, Bocca degli, H. xxxii. 105. 

Abbati, Buoso degli, H. xxv. 131. 

Abel, H. iv. 53. 

Abraham, H. iv. 55. 

Absalom, H. xxviii. 132. 

Abydos, Purg. xxviii. 74, 

Accorso, H. xv. 110. 

Accorso, Francesco d% H. xv. 111. 

Achan, Purg. xx. 107. 

Acheron, H. iii. 72 ; xiv. 111. Purg. 

ii. 100. 
Achilles, H. v. 65; xii. 68 ; xxvi. 63 ; 

xxxi. 4. Purg. ix. 32 ; xxi. 93. 
Acone, Par. xvi. 64. 
Acquacheta, H. xvi. 97. 
Acquasparta, Par. xii. 115. 
Acre, H. xxvii. 84. 
Adam, H. iii. 107 ; iv. 52. Purg. ix. 

9 ; xi. 45 ; xxix. 84 ; xxxii. 37 ; 

xxxiii. 62. Par. vii. 22; xiii. 34, 

77 ; xxvi. 82, 100 ; xxxii. 108, 122. 
Adamo of Brescia, H. xxx. 60, 103. 
Adice, H. xii. 4. Purg. xvi. 117. 

Par. ix. 44. 
Adimari, Par. xvi. 113. 
Adrian V. Purg. xix. 97. 
Adriatic, Par. xxi. 114. 
jEgina, H. xxix. 58. 
JEneas, H. ii. 34 ; iv. 119 ; xxvi. 62, 

92. Purg. xviii. 135 ; xxi. 98. Par. 

vi. 3; xv. 26. 
iEsop, H. xxiii. 5. 
JSthiop, Purg. xxvi. 18. Par. xix. 

108. 
Airicanus. See Scipio. 
Agamemnon, Par. v. 69. 



Agapete I. Par. vi. 16. 
Agatho, Purg. xxii. 105. 
Aghinulfo of Romena, H. xxx. 76. 
Aglauros, Purg. xiv. 142. 
Agnello. See Brunelleschi. 
Agobbio, Purg. xi. 80. 
Agobbio, Oderigi d', Purg. xi. 79. 
Agostino, Par. xii. 122. 
Aguglione, Baldo d', Par. xvi. 54. 
Ahasuerus, Purg. xvii. 28. 
Ahitophel, H. xxviii. 133. 
Alagia, Purg. xix. 141. 
Alagna, Purg. xx. 86. Par. xxx. 145. 
Alardo, H. xxviii. 17. 
Alba, Par. vi. 38. 
Alberichi, Par. xvi. 87. 
Alberigo. See Manfredi. 
Albero of Sienna, H. xxix. 105. 
Albert I. Purg. vi. 98. Par. xix. 114. 
Alberti, Alberto degli, H. xxxii. 55. 
Alberti, Alessandro degli, H. xxxii. 

53. 
Alberti, Napoleone degli, H. xxxii. 

53. 
Alberto, Abbot of San Zeno, Purg. 

xviii. 118. 
Albertus Magnus, Par. x. 95. 
Alcides, H. xxv. 30 ; xxxi. 123. 
Alcmseon, Purg. xii. 46. Par. iv. 100. 
Aldobrandesco, Guglielmo, Purg. xi. 

59. 
Aldobrandesco, Omberto, Purg. xi. 

58, 67. 
Aldobrandi, Tegghiaio, H. vi. 79 ; 

xvi. 42. 
Alecto, H. ix. 48. 

Alessandro of Romena, H. xxx. 76. 
Alessio. See Interminei. 



2 K 



(530) 



INDEX. 



Alexander the Great, H. xiv. 28. 

Alexander Pheraeus, H. xii. 106. 

Alexandria, Pnrg, Yii. 137. 

Ali, H. xxviii. 32. 

Alichino, H. xxi. 116; xxii. 111. 

Alighieri, son of Cacciaguida, Par. 

xv. 86. 
Alonzo III. king of Arragon, Pnrg. 

yii. 116. 
Alonzo X. of Spain, Par. xix. 122. 
Alp, H. xx. 58. 
Alpine, Pnrg. xiv. 33; xxxiii. 110. 

Par. vi. 52. 
AlYema, Par. xi. 98. 
Axnata, Pnrg. xvii. 34. 
Amidei, Par. xvi. 135. 
Amphiaraus, H. xx. 31. Par. iv. 100. 
Amphion, H. xxxii. 11. 
Amyclas, Par. xi. 63. 
Anacreon, Pnrg. xxii. 105. 
Ananias, Par. xxvi. 13. 
Ananias, the hnsband of Sapphira, 

Pnrg. xx. 109. 
Anastagio, Pnrg. xiv. 109. 
Anastasius, H. xi. 9. 
Anaxagoras, H. iv. 135. 
Anchises, H. i. 69 ; iv. 119 ; xxvi. 

94. Par. xv. 25 ; xix. 128. 
Andes, Pnrg. xviii. 84. 
Andrea, da Sant'. Giacomo, H. xiii. 

134. 
Angelo. See Cagnano. 
Ann, Saint, Par. xxxii. 119. 
Annas, H. xxiii. 124. 
Anselm, Par. xii. 128. 
Anselm, son of Connt Ugolino de' 

Gherardeschi, H. xxxiii. 48. 
Antaeus, H. xxxi. 92, 103, 131. 
Antandros, Par. vi. 69. 
Antenor, Purg. v. 75. 
Antenora, H. xxxii. 89. 
Antigone, Pnrg. xxii. 108. 
Antiochns, H. xix. 90. 
Anthony, Saint, Par. xxix. 131. 
Apennine, H. xvi. 96 : xx. 63. Pnrg. 

v. 94 ; xxx. 87. Par. xxi. 97. 
Apollo, Pnrg. xx. 127. Par. i. 12; 

ii. 9. 
Apulia, H. xxviii. 7. See Ponille. 
Apnlian, H. xxviii. 15. 
Aquarins, H. xxiv. 2. 
Aqninnm, Pnrg. xxii. 14. Par. x. 96 ; 

xiv. 6. 
Arab, Par. vi. 50. 

Arachne, H. xvii. 18. Purg. xii. 39. 
Aragonia, Purg. iii. 113. 



Arbia, H. x. 84. 

Area, Par. xvi. 90. 

Archiano, Pnrg. v. 93, 122. 

Arctic, Par. xxxi. 28. 

Ardelam. See Ordelaffi. 

Ardinghi, Par. xvi. 91. 

Arethnsa, H. xxv. 89. 

Arezzo, H. xxii. 6 ; xxix. 104 ; xxx. 

32. Pnrg. vi. 14 ; xiv. 49. 
Argenti, Filippo, H. viii. 59. 
Argia, Pnrg. xxii. 109. 
Argive, H. xxviii. 81. 
Argo, Par. xxxiii. 92. 
Argonants, Par. ii. 17 ; xxxiii. 91. 
Argns, Pnrg. xxix. 91 ; xxxii. 63. 
Ariadne, Par. xiii. 12. 
Aries, Purs:, viii. 135 ; xxxii. 52. Par. 

i. 39 ; xxviii. 106. 
Aristotle, H. iv. 128 ; xi. 104. Pnrg. 

iii. 41. Par. viii. 125. 
Alius, Par. xiii. 123. 
Aries, H. ix. 111. 
Arnault. See Daniel. 
Amo, H. xiii. 148 ; xv. 115 ; xxiii. 

95 ; xxx. 65 ; xxxiii. 83. Pnrg. v. 

123 ; xiv. 26. Par. xi. 99. 
Arrigo. See Pifanti. 
Arrigncci, Par. xvi. 106. 
Arthnr, H. xxxii. 59. 
Ariuis, H. xx. 43. 
Ascesi, Par. xi. 49. 
Asciano, Caccia of, H. xxix. 127. 
Asdente, H. xx. 116. 
Asopns, Pnrg. xviii. 92. 
Assyrians, Pnrg. xii. 54. 
Athamas, H. xxx. 4. 
Athens, H. xii. 17. Pnrg. vi. 141 ; 

xv. 96. Par. xvii. 46. 
Atropos, H. xxxiii. 124. 
Attila, H. xii. 134; xiii. 150. 
Aventine, H. xxv. 25. 
Averroes, H. iv. 141. 
August, Purg. v. 38. 
Au^nstine, Saint, Par. x. 117; xxxii. 

30. 
Augustus, Par. xxx. 136. See Caesar. 
Avicen, H. iv. 140. 
Aulis, H. xx. 109. 
Aurora, Purg. ii. 8 ; ix. 1. 
Ausonia, Par. viii. 63. 
Ausonian, Par. xi. 98. 
Austrian, H. xxxii. 26. 
Azzo, Ubaldini of, Purg. xiv. 107. 
Azzolino. See Romano. 

Babylonian, Par. xxiii. 129. 



INDEX. 



(531) 



Bacchiglione, H. xv. 115. Par. ix. 47. 
Bacchus, H. xx. 55. Purg. xviii. 93. 

Par. xiii. 22. 
Bagnacavallo, Purg. xiv. 118. 
Bagnoregio, Par. xii. 119. 
Balearic, H. xxviii. 79. 
Baliol, Johu, Par. xix. 121. 
Baptist. See John. 
Barbariccia, H. xxi. 118 ; xxii. 30, 57, 

142. 
Barbarossa. See Frederick. 
Bari, Par. viii. 64. 
Barucci, Par. xvi. 102. 
Battifolle, Frederigo Novello da, 

Purg. yi. 17. 
Beatrice, daughter of Folco Portinari, 

passim. 
Beatrice, Marchioness of Este, Purg. 

yiii. 73. t 
Beatrix, wife of Charles I. king of 

Naples, Purg. yii. 129. Par. yi. 135. 
Beccaria, H. xxxii. 116. 
Bede, Par. x. 127. 
Begga, Par. ix. 88. 
Belacqua, Purg. iv. 119. 
Belisarius, Par. yi. 25. 
Bella, Giano della, Par. xyi. 130. 
Bellincion. See Berti. 
Bello, Geri del, H. xxix. 26. 
Belus, Par. ix. 93. 
Belzebub, H. xxxiy. 122. 
Benacus, H. xx. 60, 72, 75. 
Benedict, Saint, Par. xxii. 38 ; xxxii. 

30. 
Benedict, Saint, the Abbev, H. xvi. 

100. 
Beneyento, Purg. iii. 124. 
Benincasa d' Arezzo, Purg. yi. 14. 
Berenger, Raymond, Par. yi. 136. 
Bergamese, H. xx. 70. 
Bernard the Franciscan, Par. xi. 72. 
Bernard, Saint, Par. xxxi. 55, 93, 130 ; 

xxxii. 1 ; xxxiii. 47. 
Bernardin. See Fosco. 
Bemardone, Pietro, Par. xi. 83. 
Berti, Bellincion, Par. xv. 106; xyi. 

96, 119. 
Bertrand. See Born. 
Bethlehem, Purg. xx. 135. 
Bianco, H. xxiv. 149. 
Billi, Par. xvi. 100. 
Bindi, Par. xxix. 111. 
Birtha, Par. xiii. 135. 
Bisenzio, H. xxxii. 54. 
Bismantua, Purg. iv. 25. 
Bocca. See Abbati. 

2 M 



Boetius, Par. x. 119. 

Bohemia, Purg. vii. 98. Par. xix. 116. 

Bohemian, Par. xix. 123. 

Bologna, H. xviii. 58 ; xxiii. 105, 144. 

Purg. xiv. 102. 
Bolognian, Purg. xi. 83. 
Bolsena, Purg. xxiv. 25. 
Bonatti, Guido, H. xx. 116. 
Bonaventura, Saint, Par. xii. 25, 118. 
Boniface, Purg. xxiv. 30. 
Boniface VIII. H. xix. 55 ; xxvii. 81. 

Purg. xx. 85 ; xxxii. 146. Par. ix. 

134; xii. 82; xxii. 14; xxvii. 20; 

xxx. 145. 
Bonturo. See Dati. 
Borgo, Par. xvi. 132. 
Born, Bertrand de, H. xxviii. 130 ; 

xxix. 27. 
Borneil, Giraud de, Purg. xxvi. 113. 
Borsiere, Guglielmo, H. xvi. 70. 
Bostichi, Par. xvi. 91. 
Botaio, Martino, H. xxi. 37. 
Brabant, Purg. vi. 24. 
Branca. See Doria. 
Branda, H. xxx. 77. 
Brennus, Par. vi. 44. 
Brenta, H. xv. 8. Par. ix. 28. 
Brescia, H. xx. 66. 
Brescian, H. xx. 70. 
Brettinoro, Purg. xiv. 114. 
Briareus, H. xxxi. 90. Purg. xii. 25. 
Brigata, son of Count Ugolino de' 

Gherardeschi, H. xxxiii. 88. 
Brosse, Peter de la, Purg. vi. 23. 
Bruges, H. xv. 5. Purg. xx. 46. 
Brundusium, Purg. iii. 26. 
Brunelleschi, Agnello, H. xxv. 61. 
Brunetto. See Latini. 
Brutus, Junius, the expeller of Tar- 

quin, H. iv. 123. 
Brutus, Marcus, the slayer of Caesar, 

H. xxxiv. 61. Par. vi. 76. 
Bryso, Par. xiii. 121. 
Bujamonti, Giovanni, H. xvii. 69. 
Bulicame, H. xiv. 76. 
Buonacossi, Pinamonte, H. xx. 95. 
Buonaggiunta Urbiciani, Purg. xxiv. 

20, twice. 
Buonconte, Purg. v. 87. 
Buondelmonti, Par. xvi. 65. 
Buondelmonti, Buondelmonte de', 

Par. xvi. 139. 
Buoso. See Donati. 

Caccia. See Asciano. 
Cacciaguida, Par. xv. 84, 128 ; xvii. 6. 
9 



(532) 



INDEX. 



Caccianimico, Venedico, H. xviii. 50. 

Cacus, H. xxv. 24. 

Cadmus, H. xxv. 89. 

Caecilius, Purg. xxii, 97- 

Caesar, H. xiii. 68. Purg. vi. 93, 116. 

Par. ri. 10 ; xvi. 57. 
Caesar, Augustus, H. i. 67. Purg.Tii. 

5; xxix. 111. Par. vi. 75. 
Caesar, Julius, H. i. 65 ; iv. 120. 

Purg. xviii. 99 ; xxri. 70. Par. xi. 

64. 
Cagnano, the river, Par. ix. 48. 
Cagnano, Augelo or Angiolello da, 

H. xxviii. 73. 
Cagnazzo, H. xxi. 117 ; xxii. 105. 
Cahors, H. xi. 53. 
Cahorsines, Par. xxvii. 53. 
Cai'aphas, H. xxiii. 117. 
Caieta, H. xxvi. 91. 
Cain, H. xx. 123. Purg. xiv. 137. 

Par. ii. 52. 
Ca'ina, H. v. 105 ; xxvii. 57. 
Calabria, Par. xii. 131. 
Calboli, Fuleieri da, Purg. xiv. 61. 
Calboli, Rinieri da, Purg. xiv. 91, 92. 
Calcabrina, H. xxi. 117 ; xxii. 133. 
Calehas, H. xx. 109. 
Calfueci, Par. xvi. 104. 
Callaroga, Par. xii. 48. 
Calliope, Purg. i. 9. 
Callisto, Purg. xxv. 126. 
Callixtus I. Par. xxvii. 40. 
Camaldoli, Purg. v. 94. 
Camiccione, Alberto; de' Pazzi, H. 

xxxii. 66. 
Camilla, H. i. 104; iv. 120. 
Gamin o, Gherardo da, Purg. xvi. 126, 

137, 142. 
Camino, Eiecardo da, Par. ix. 48. 
Camoniea, H. xx. 62. 
Campagnatieo, Purg. xi. 66. 
Campaldino, Purg. v. 90. 
Campi, Par. xvi. 48. 
Canavese, Purg. vii. 138. 
Cancellieri, Focaccia de', H. xxxii. 

60. 
Cancer, Par. xxv. 102. 
Capaneus, H. xiv. 59. 
Capet, Hugh, Purg. xx. 48. 
Capoccliio, H. xxix. 134; xxx. 28. 
Caponsacco, Par. xvi. 120. 
Capraia, H. xxxiii. 82. 
Capricorn, Purg. ii. 55. Par. xxvii. 

63. 
Caprona, H. xxi. 92. 
Capulets, Purg. vi. 107. 



Carisenda, H. xxxi. 125. 

Carlino. See Pazzi. 

Carpisna, Guido di ; da Montefeltro, 

Purg. xiv. 100. 
Carrara, H. xx. 45. 
Casale, Par. xii. 115. 
Casalodi, H. xx. 94. 
Casella, Purg. ii. 88. 
Casentino, H. xxx. 64. Purg. v. 92 ; 

xiv. 45. 
Cassero, Giacopo del, Purg. v. 73. 
Cassero, Guido del, H. xxviii. 73. 
Cassino, Par. xxii. 36. 
Cassius, H. xxxiv. 62. Par. vi. 76. 
Castello, Guido da, Purg. xvi. 127. 
Castile, Par. xii. 49. 
Castrocaro, Purg. xiv. 118. 
Catalano. See Malavolti. 
Catalonia, Par. viii. 83. 
Catilini, Par. xvi. 86. 
Cato, H. iv. 124 ; xiv. 15. Purg. i. 

31 ; ii. 113. 
Catria, Par. xxi. 99. 
Cattolica, H. xxviii. 77. 
Cavalcante, Francesco Guercio, H. 

xxv. 142. 
Cavalcanti, H. xxx. 33. 
C a vale ant i, Cavalcante de', H. x. 52. 
Cavalcanti, Guido, H. x. 62. Purg. 

xi. 96. 
Cecina, H. xiii. 10. 
Celestine V. H. iii. 56 : xxvii. 101. 
Centaurs, H. xii. 53, 103, 116, 128 ; 

xxv. 17. Purg. xxiv. 120. 
Ceperano, H. xxviii. 14. 
Cephas, Par. xxi. 118. 
Cerbaia, Count Orso da, Purs. vi. 20. 
Cerberus, H. vi. 12, 22. 31 ; ix. 97- 
Cerchi, Par. xvi. 63. 
Ceres, Purg. xxviii. 52. 
Certaldo, Par. xvi. 48. 
Cervia, H. xxvii. 40. 
Cesena, H. xxvii. 50. 
Ceuta, H. xxvi. 109. 
Charlemain, H. xxxi. 15. Par. vi. 

98 ; xviii. 39. 
Charles of Lorraine, Purg. xx. 52. 
Charles Martel, Par. viii. 50 ; ix. 1. 
Charles of Valois, H. vi. 69. Purg. 

xx. 69. Par. vi. 110. 
Charles I. of Anjou, kins of Naples, 

H. xix. 103. Purs. v. 69 : vii. 114, 

125; xi. 137; xx. 59, 65. Par. 

viii. 77. 
Charles II. kins of Naples, Purg. vii. 

125. Par. xix. 125 ; xx. 5S. 



INDEX. 



(533) 



Charon, H. iii. 89, 101, 119. 

Charybdis, H. vii. 22. 

Chebar, Purg. xxix. 97. 

Chiana, Par. xiii. 21. 

Chiaramontesi, Par. xvi. 103. 

Chiarentana, H. xv. 10. 

Chiascio, Par. xi. 40. 

Chiassi, Purg. xxviii. 20. 

Chiaveri, Purg. xix. 99. 

Chiron, H. xii. 62, 69, 74, 95. Purg. 

ix. 34. 
Chiusi, Par. xvi. 74. 
Christ, Jesus, H. xxxiv. 110. Purg. 

xx. 86 ; xxi. 6 ; xxiii. 67 ; xxvi. 

121; xxxii. 101. Par. Ti. 15; ix. 

117 ; xi. 66, 99 ; xii. 35, 66, 67, 68 ; 

xiv. 96, 98, 101 ; xvii. 50 ; xix. 68, 

102, 105 twice ; xx. 42 ; xxiii. 20, 

71 ; xxv. 35 ; xxvii. 36 ; xxix. 103, 

115 ; xxxi. 3, 99 ; xxxii. 17, 19, 22, 

73, 75, 111. 
Christians, H. xxvii. 84. Purg. x. 

110 ; xxii. 74, 90. Par. v. 74 ; xv. 

128; xix. 108; xx. 96; xxiv. 53, 

105 ; xxvii. 44. 
Chrysostom, Saint, Par. xii. 128. 
Ciacco, H. vi. 52, 58. 
Ciampolo, H. xxii. 47. 
Cianfa. See Donati. 
Cianghella, Par. xv. 120. 
Cieldauro, Par. x. 124. 
Cimabue, Purg. xi. 93. 
Cincinnatus. See Quintius. 
Circe, H. xxvi. 90. Purg. xiv. 45. 
Ciriatto, H. xxi. 120 ; xxii. 54. 
Clare, Saint, Par. iii. 99. 
Clement IV. Purg. iii. 122. 
Clement V. H. xix. 86. Purg. xxxii. 

155. Par. xvii. 80 ; xxvii. 53 ; 

xxx. 141. 
Clemenza, Par. ix. 2. 
Cleopatra, H. v. 62. Par. vi. 79. 
Cletus, Par. xxvii. 37- 
Clio, Purg. xxii. 58. 
Clotho, Purg. xxi. 28. 
Clymene, Par. xvii. 1. 
Coan, Purg. xxix. 133. 
Cocytus, H. xiv. 114 ; xxxi. 114 ; 

xxxii i. 154 ; xxxiv. 48. 
Colchos, H. xviii. 86. Par. ii. 18. 
Colle, Purg. xiii. 108. 
Cologne, H. xxiii. 63. Par. x. 95. 
Colonnesi, H. xxvii. 82. 
Conio, Counts of, Purg. xiv. 119. 
Conrad. See Malaspina and Pa- 
lazzo. 



Conrad I. Par. xv. 132. 
Conradine, Purg. xx. 66. 
Constance, Empress, Purg. iii. 111. 

Par. iii. 121 ; iv. 95. 
Constantine the Great, H. xix. 118 ; 

xxvii. 89. Par. v. 1 ; xx. 50. 
Conti Guidi, Par. xvi. 62. 
Cornelia, H. iv. 125. Par. xv. 122. 
Corneto, H. xiii. 10. 
Corneto, Riniero da, H. xii. 137. 
Corsic, Purg. xviii. 81. 
Cortigiani, Par. xvi. 110. 
Cosenza, Purg. iii. 121. 
Costanza, Empress. See Constance. 
Costanza, Queen, Purg. iii. 112, 138 ; 

vii. 130. 
Crassus, Purg. xx. 114. 
Crete, H. xii. 13; xiv. 90. 
Creusa, Par. ix. 94. 
Croatia, Par. xxxi. 94. 
Crotona, Par. viii. 64. 
Cunizza, Par. ix. 32. 
Cupid, Par. viii. 9. 
Curiatii, Par. vi. 39. 
Curio, H. xxviii. 97. 
Cynthia, Purg. xxix. 77. 
Cyprian, H. xxviii. 78. Par. viii. 3. 
Cyrrhaean, Par. i. 35. 
Cyrus, Purg. xii. 51. 
Cytherea, Purg. xxv. 127 ; xxviii. 63. 

Daedalus, H. xvii. 108; xxix. 112. 

Par. viii. 131. 
Damiano, Pietro, Par. xxi. 112. 
Damiata, H. xiv. 100. 
Daniel, Purg. xxii. 143. Par. iv. 13 ; 

xxix. 140. 
Daniel, Arnault, Purg. xxvi. 134. 
Dante, Purg. xxx. 53. 
Danube, H. xxxii. 26. Par. viii. 69. 
Daphne, Purg. xxii. 112. 
Dati, Bonturo de', H. xxi. 40. 
David, H. iv. 55 ; xxviii. 133. Purg. 

x. 60. Par. xx. 34 ; xxv. 71 ; 

xxxii. 8. 
Decii, Par. vi. 48. 
Deianira, H. xii. 65. 
Deidamia, H. xxvi. 64. Purg. xxii. 

111. 
Deiphile, Purg. xxii. 108. 
Delos, Purg. xx. 126. 
Delphic, Par. i. 30. 
Democritus, H. iv. 132. 
Demophoon, Par. ix. 97. 
Dente, Vitaliano del, H. xvii. 66. 
Diana, Purg. xx. 127 ; xxv. 126. 



(534) 



INDEX. 



Diana, a subterraneous stream ima- 
gined at Sienna, Purg. xiii. 144. 

Dido, H. v. 84. Par. viii. 11 ; ix. 93. 

Diogenes, H. iv. 133. 

Diomede, H. xxvi. 56. 

Dione, Par. viii. 9 ; xxii. 140. 

Dionysius the tyrant, H. xii. 107. 

Dionysius the Areopagite, Par. x. 
112 ; xxviii. 121. 

Dionysius, king of Portugal, Par. xix. 
135. 

Dioscorides, H. iv. 136. 

Dis, H. viii. 66; xi. 68; xii. 37; 
xxxiv. 20. 

Dolcino, H. xxviii. 53. 

Dominic, Saint, Par. x. 91 ; xi. 36, 
113 ; xii. 51, 64, 134. 

Dominicans, Par. xi. 116. 

Domitian, Purg. xxii. 83. 

Donati, Buoso, H. xxv. 131; xxx. 44. 

Donati, Cianfa, H. xxv. 39. 

Donati, Corso, Purg. xxiv. 81. 

Donati, Ubertino, Par. xvi. 118. 

Donatus, Par. xii. 129. 

Doria, Branca, H. xxxiii. 136, 138. 

Douay, Purg. xx. 46. 

Draghinazzo, H. xxi. 119 ; xxii. 72. 

Duca, Guido del; daBrettinoro, Purg. 
xiv. 83. 

Duera, Buoso da, H. xxxii. 113. 

Dyrrachium, Par. vi. 66. 

Ebro, in Italy, Par. ix. 85. 

Ebro, in Spain, Purg. xxvii. 4. 

Echo, Par. xii. 12. 

Edward I. king of England, Purg. 
vii. 133. Par. xix. 121. 

Egidius, Par. xi. 76. 

Egvpt, Purg. ii. 45. Par. xxv. 59. 

El,' Par. xxvi. 133. 

Elbe, Purg. vii. 96, twice. 

Eleanor, wife of Edward I. of Eng- 
land, Par. vi. 135. 

Electra, H. iv. 117. 

Eli, Purg. xxiii. 69. Par. xxvi. 134. 

Elias, Purg. xxxii. 79. 

Elijah, H. xxvi. 37. 

Eliseo, Par. xv. 129. 

Elisha, H. xxvi. 35. 

Elsa, Purg. xxxiii. 67. 

Elysian, Par. xv. 25. 

Ema, Par. xvi. 142. 

Empedocles, H. iv. 134. 

England, Purg. vii. 129. 

English, Par. xix. 121. 

Eolus, Purg. xxviii. 21, 



Ephialtes, H. xxxi. 85, 99. 

Epicurus, H. x. 15. 

Epirot, Par. vi. 44. 

Erictho, H. ix. 24. 

Eriphyle, Purg. xii. 46. Par. iv. 102. 

Erisicthon, Purg. xxiii. 23. 

Erynnis, H. ix. 46. 

Erythraean, H. xxiv. 88. 

Esau, Par. viii. 136. 

Este, Purg. v. 77. 

Este, Azzo da, Purg. v. 77. 

Este, Obizzo da, H. xii. Ill ; xviii. 

56. 
Esther, Purg. xvii. 29. 
Eteocles, H. xxvi. 55. Purg. xxii. 57. 
Ethiopia, H. xxiv. 87. 
Euclid, H. iv. 139. 
Eve, Purg. viii. 98 ; xii. 65 ; xxiv. 

116. Par. xiii. 35; xxxii. 3. 
Eunoe, Purg. xxviii. 137; xxxiii. 126. 
Euphrates, Purg. xxxiii. 112. 
Euripides, Purg. xxii. 105. 
Europa, Par. xxvii. 78. 
Europe, Purg. viii. 121. Par. vi. 6; 

xii. 44. 
Eurus, Par. viii. 71. 
Euryalus, H. i. 105. 
Eurypilus, H. xx. 111. 
Ezekiel, Purg. xxix. 96. 

Fabii, Par. vi. 48. 

Fabricius, Purg. xx. 25. 

Faenza, H. xxvii. 46 ; xxxii. 120. 

Purg. xiv. 103. 
Falterona, mountain, Purg. xiv. 19. 
Falterona, valley, H. xxxii. 53. 
Famagosta, Par. xix. 143. 
Fano, H. xxviii. 72. Purg. v. 70. 
Fantolini, Purg. xiv. 125. 
Farfarello, H. xxi. 121 ; xxii. 93. 
Farinata. See Uberti. 
Felice Guzman, Par. xii. 73. 
Feltro, H. i. 102. Par. ix. 50. 
Ferdinand IV. of Spain, Par. xix. 

122. 
Ferrara, Par. ix. 54 ; xv. 130. 
Fesole, H. xv. 62, 73. Par. vi. 54 ; 

xv. 119; xvi. 121. 
Fieschi, Purg. xix. 97. 
Fifanti, Arrigo degli, H. vi. 81. 
Fighine, Par. xvi. 48. 
Filippeschi, Purg. vi. 108. 
Filippi, Par. xvi. 86. 
Filippo. See Argenti. 
Flaccus, H. iv. 84. 
Flemings, H. xv. 4. 



INDEX. 



(535) 



Florence, H. x. 91 ; xvi.73; xxiv. 143; 

xxvi. 1. Purg. vi. 129 ; xi. 114; xii. 

96 ; xiv. 53 ; xx. 74 ; xxiii. 94. Par. 

xv. 92; xri. 23, 83, 145, 147; xvii. 

48 ; xxix. 109 ; xxxi. 35. 
Florentine, H. viii. 60 ; XYii. 67 ; 

xxxiii. 12. Par. xvi. 59, 85. 
Focaccia. See Cancellieri. 
Focara, H. xxviii. 85. 
Folco, Par. ix. 90. 

Forese, Pnrg. xxiii. 44, 70 ; xxiv. 72. 
Forli, H. xri. 99; xxvii. 41. Purg. 

xxiv. 33. 
Fosco, Bemardin di, Purg. xiv. 103. 
France, H. xxvii. 42 ; xxix. 118. 

Purg. xx. 49, 69. Par. xv. 114. 
Francesca, daughter of Guido Novello 

da Polenta, H. v. 113. 
Francis, Saint, H. xxvii. 65, 109. Par. 

xi. 34, 69 ; xiii. 30 ; xxii. 88 ; xxxii. 

30. 
Franco of Bologna, Purg. xi. 83. 
Frederick I. Emperor, Purg. xviii. 

119. 
Frederick II. Emperor, H. x. 120; 

xiii. 61 ; xxiii. 66. Purg. xvi. 120. 

Par. iii. 122. 
Frederick II. king of Sicily, Purg. iii. 

113. Par. xix. 127; xx. 58. 
Frenchman, H. xxxii. 112. 
Frieselanders, H. xxxi. 57. 
Fucci, Vanni, H. xxiv. 120. 

Gabriel, Par. iv. 48; ix. 133; xxxii. 

91, 101. 
Gaddo, son of Count Ugolino de' 

Gherardeschi, H. xxxiii. 66. 
Gades, Par. xxvii. 76. 
Gaeta, Par. viii. 64. 
Gaia, Purg. xvi. 144. 
Galenus, H. iv. 140. 
Galicia, Par. xxv. 20. 
Galigaio, Par. xvi. 98. 
Galli, Par. xvi. 102. 
Gallia, Purg. vii. 108. 
Gallura, H. xxii. 81. Purg. viii. 81. 
Galluzzo, Par. xvi. 51. 
Ganellon, H. xxxii. 119. 
Ganges, Purg. ii. 5 ; xxvii. 5. Par. 

xi. 48. 
Ganymede, Purg. ix. 21. 
Garda, H. xx. 62. 
Gardingo, H. xxiii. 110. 
Gascon, Par. xvii. 80 ; xxvii. 53. 
Gascony, Purg. xx. 64. 
Gaville, H. xxv. 140. 



Genoan, Par. ix. 87. 

Genoese, H. xxxiii. 149. 

Gentiles, Par. xx. 96. 

Gentucca, Purg. xxiv. 38. 

Geri. See Bello. 

German, H. xvii. 21. Purg. vi. 98. 

Par. viii. 70. 
Germany, H. xx. 59. 
Geryon,*H. xvii. 93, 129; xviii. 21. 

Purg. xxvii. 24. 
Ghent, H. xv. 5. Purg. xx. 46. 
Gherardeschi, Count Ugolino de', H. 

xxxiii. 14, 86. 
Gherardo. See Camino. 
Ghibellines, Par. vi. 107. 
Ghino di Tacco, Purg. vi. 15. 
Ghisola, H. xviii. 55. 
Giacomo. See Andrea. 
Giacopo. See Rusticucci. 
Gianfigliazzi, H. xvii. 57. 
Gibraltar, H. xxvi. 106. 
Gideon, Purg. xxiv. 124. 
Gilboa, Purg. xii. 37. 
Giotto, Purg. xi. 95. 
Giovanna, wife of Riccardo da Ca- 
mino, Purg. viii. 71. 
Giovanna, mother of Saint Dominic, 

Par. xii. 74. 
Giovanna, wife of Buonconte da 

Montefeltro, Purg. v. 88. 
Giuda, Par. xvi. 121. 
Giuliano, S. H. xxxiii. 29. 
GiuocmV Par. xvi. 102. 
Glaucus, Par. i. 66. 
Godfrey of Boulogne, Par. xviii. 43. 
Gomita, Friar, H. xxii. 80. 
Gomorrah, Purg. xxvi. 35. 
Gorgon, H. ix. 57. 
Gorgona, H. xxxiii. 82. 
Goverao, H. xx. 77. 
Graecia, H. xx. 107. Par. xx. 51. 
Grafhacane, H. xxi. 120; xxii. 34. 
Gratian, Par. x. 101. 
Greci, Par. xvi. 87. 
Grecian, Purg. xxii. 106. 
Greek, Purg. xxii. 100. 
Greeks, H. xxvi. 76. Purg. xxii. 87. 
Gregory the Great, Purg. x. 68. Par. 

xx. 103 ; xxviii. 126. 
Grifolino d' Arezzo, H. xxix. 104 ; xxx. 

32. 
Gualandi, H. xxxiii. 32. 
Gualdo, Par. xi. 44. 
Gualdrada, H. xvi. 38. 
Gualterotti, Par. xvi. 132. 
Guelphs, Par. vi. 110. 



(53G) 



INDEX. 



Guenever, Par. xvi. 15. 

Guido. See Cassero, Castello, Caval- 

eanti, Duca, Guinicelli, Novelio, 

Prata. 
Guido, Conte, Par. xvi. 95. 
Guido of Roinena, H. xxx. 76. 
Guidoguerra, H. xvi. 38. 
Guinicelli, Guido, Purg. xi. 96 ; xxvi, 

83. 
Guiscard, Robert, H. xxriii. 12. Par. 

xviii. 44. 
Guittone d'Arezzo, Purg. xxiv. 56 ; 

xxri. 118. 

Hainan, Purg. xrii. 26. 

Hannibal, H. xxxi. 107. Par. vi. 

51. 
Haquin, Par. xix. 136. 
Hautefort, H. xxix. 28. 
Hebrews, Purg. xxiv. 123. Par. xxxii. 

14. 
Hector, H. iv. 118. Par. yi. 71. 
Hecuba, H. xxx. 16. 
Helen, H. v. 63. 
Helice, Par. xxxi. 29. 
Helicon, Purg. xxix. 38. 
Heliodorus, Purg. xx. 111. 
Hellespont, Purg. xxviii. 70. 
Henrv, nephew of Henry III. of 

England, H. xii. 119. 
Henry of Navarre, Purg. vii. 105. 
Henrv II. king of Cyprus, Par. xix. 

144. 
Henrv II. king of England, H. xxviii. 

131. 
Henrv III. king of England, Purg. 

vii.* 131. 
Henry VI. Emperor, Par. iii. 122. 
Henrv TIL Emperor. Purg. vi. 103. 

Par. xvii. 80 ; xxx. 135. 
Heraclitus, H. iv. 134. 
Hercules, H. xxvi. 106. Par. ix. 

98. 
Hesperian, Purg. xxvii. 4. 
Hezekiah, Par. xx. 44. 
Hippocrates, H. iv. 139. Purg. xxix. 

133. 
Hippolytus, Par. xvii. 47. 
Holofernes, Pur?, xii. 54. 
Homer, H. iv. 83. Purg. xxii. 100. 
Honorius III. Par. xi. 90. 
Horace. See Flaccus. 
Horatii, Par. vi. 39. 
Hugh. See Capet. 
Hugues. See Victor, Saint. 
Hungary, Par. viii. 68 ; xix. 138. 



Hyperion, Par. xxii. 138. 
Hypsipile, H. xviii. 90. Purg. xxii. 
110. 

Jacob, Par. viii. 136 ; xxii. 70. 
James, king of Majorca and Minorca. 

Par. xix. 133. 
James, Saint ; the elder, Par. xxt. 

20. 
James II. king of Arra^on, Purg. iii. 

113 ; vii. 120. Par. xix. 133. 
January, Par. xxvii. 133. 
Janus, Par. vi. 83. 
Jarbas, Purg. xxxi. 69. 
Jason, the Argonaut, H. xviii. 85. 

Par. ii. 19. 
Jason, the Jew, H. xix. 88. 
Iberia, H. xxvi. 101. 
Icarus, H. xvii. 105. Par. viii. 132. 
Ida, H. xiv. 93. 
Jephthah, Par. v. 64. 
Jerome, Saint, Par. xxix. 38. 
Jerusalem, Purg. xxiii. 26. Par. xii. 

125 ; xxv. 59. 
Jesus. See Christ. 
Jews. H. xxiii. 126 ; xxvii. 83. Par. 

v. 81 : vii. 45 ; xxix. 108. 
Herda, Purg. xviii. 100. 
Ilion, Purg. xii. 57. 
Hium, H. i. 71. 
Illuminato, Par. xii. 121. 
Imola, H. xxvii. 46. 
Importuni, Par. xvi. 133. 
Indian, Purg. xxvi. 18 ; xxxii. 41. 

Par. xxix. 108. 
Indus, Par. xix. 67. 
Infangato, Par. xvi. 122. 
Innocent III. Par. xi. 85. 
Ino, H. xxx. 5. 

Interminei, Alessio, H. xviii. 120. 
Joachim, Par. xii. 131. 
Joanna, Par. xii. 74. 
Jocasta. Purg. xxii. 57. 
John the Baptist, H. xiii. 145 ; xxx. 

73. Purg. xxii. 148. Par. iv. 29 ; 

xvi. 24, 45 ; xviii. 130 ; xxxii. 20. 
John, kiiig of England, H. xxviii. 

130. 
John, Saint ; the Evangelist, H. xix. 

109. Purg. xxix. 101. Par. iv. 

29 ; xxiv. 124 ; xxv. 94, 112 ; xxvi. 

51 ; xxxii. 112. 
John XXI. See Peter of Spain. 
John XXII. Par. xxvii. 53. 
Iole, Par. ix. 98. 
Jordan, Purg. xviii. 134. Par. xxii. 91. 



INDEX. 



(537) 



Josaphat, H. x. 12. 

Joseph, H. xxx. 96. 

Joshua, Purg. xx. 108. Par. ix. 122; 

xviii. 34. 
Jove, H. xiv. 48 ; xxxi. 39, 83. Purg. 

xxix. 116 ; xxxii. 110. Par. iv. 63; 

yi. 6 ; ix. 98 ; xviii. 65 ; xxii. 141 ; 

xxvii. 13. 
Iphigenia, Par. v. 70. 
Iris, Purg. xxi. 49. Par. xii. 9. 
Isaias, Par. xxv. 90. 
Isere, Par. vi. 60. 
Isidore, Par. x. 126. 
Ismene, Purg. xxii. 110. 
Ismenus, Purg. xviii. 92. 
Israel, H. iv. 56. Purg. ii. 45. 
Israelites, Par. v. 48. 
Italian, H. xxxiii. 79. Purg. vi. 126. 

Par. ix. 26. 
Italy, H. i. 103; ix. 113; xx. 57. 

Purg. vi. 76 ; vii. 95 ; xiii. 87 ; xx. 

65; xxx. 89. Par. xxi. 96; xxx. 

136. 
Juba, Par. vi. 73. 
Judas, H. ix. 28 ; xxxi. 134 ; xxxiv. 

58. Purg. xx. 72 ; xxi. 85. 
Judecca, H. xxxiv. 112. 
Judith, Par. xxxii. 7. 
Julia, H. iv. 125. 
Julius. See Caesar. 
July, H. xxix. 46. 
Juno, H. xxx. 1. Par. xii. 9 ; xxviii. 

29. 
Jupiter. See Jove. 
Justinian, Par. vi. 11. 
Juvenal, Purg. xxii. 14. 

Lacedaemon, Purg. vi. 141. 

Lachesis, Purg. xxi. 25 ; xxv. 81. 

Laertes, Par. xxvii. 77. 

Lamberti, Par. xvi. 109. 

Lambertuccio, Purg. xiv. 102. 

Lamone, H. xxvii. 46. 

Lancelot, H. v. 124. 

Lanciotto, H. v. 106. 

Lanfranchi, H. xxxiii. 32. 

Langia, Purg. xxii. 110. 

Lano, H. xiii. 122. 

Lapi, Par. xxix. 111. 

Lateran, H. xxvii. 82. Par. xxxi. 32. 

Latian, H. xxii. 64; xxvii. 31; xxviii. 

68 ; xxix. 85, 88. 
Latini, Brunetto, H. xv. 28, 102. 
Latinus, H. iv. 122. 
Latium, H. xxvii. 24; xxix. 88. Purg. 

vii. 15 ; xi. 58 ; xiii. 85. 



Latona, Purg. xx. 126. Par. x. 64 ; 

xxii. 135 ; xxix. 1. 
Lavagno, Purg. xix. 98. 
Lavinia, H. iv. 123. Purg. xvii. 37. 

Par. vi. 4. 
Laurence, Saint, Par. iv. 82. 
Leah, Purg. xxvii. 102. 
Leander, Purg. xxviii. 72. 
Learchus, H. xxx. 10. 
Leda, Purg. iv. 59. Par. xxvii. 93. 
Lemnian, H. xviii. 86. 
Lentino, Jacopo da, Purg. xxiv. 56. 
Lerice, Purg. iii. 49. 
Lethe, H. xiv. 126, 131. Purg. xxvi. 

101 ; xxviii. 137 ; xxx. 145 ; xxxiii. 

94, 123. 
Levi, Purg. xvi. 136. 
Liandolo, Loderingo di, H. xxiii. 106. 
Libanus, Purg. xxx. 12. 
Libicocco, H. xxi. 119 ; xxii. 69. 
Libra, Purg. xxvii. 3. Par. xxix. 2. 
Lille, Purg. xx. 46. 
Limbo, H. iv. 41. 
Limoges, Purg. xxvi. 113. 
Linus, Poet, H. iv. 138. 
Linus, Pope, Par. xxvii. 37. 
Livy, H. xxviii. 10. 
Lizio. See Valbona. 
Loderingo. See Liandolo. 
Logodoro, H. xxii. 88. 
Loire, Par. vi. 61. 
Lombard, H. i. 64 ; xxii. 98 ; xxvii. 

17. Purg. vi. 62 ; xvi. 128. Par. 

vi. 96 ; xvii. 69. 
Lombardo. See Pietro. 
Lombardo, Marco, Pure:, xvi. 46, 133. 
Lombardy, H. xxviii. 70. Purg. xvi. 

46, 117. 
Louis, Purg. xx. 49. 
Lucan, H. iv. 85 ; xxv. 85. 
Lucca, H. xxxiii. 30. Purg. xxiv. 

21, 36. 
Lucia, H. ii. 97, 100. Purg. ix. 51. 

Par. xxxii. 123. 
Lucifer, H. xxxi. 134 ; xxxiv. 82. 
Lucretia, H. iv. 124. Par. vi. 41. 
Luke, Purg. xxi. 6 ; xxix. 131. 
Luni, H. xx. 44. Par. xvi. 72 
Lybia, H. xxiv. 83. 
Lybic, Purg. xxvi. 39. 
Lycurgus, Purg. xxvi. 87. 

Macarius, Par. xxii. 48. 
Maccabee, Par. xviii. 37. 
Maccabees, H. xix. 89. 
Machinardo. See Pagano. 



(538) 



INDEX. 



Mo era, Par. ix. 86. 
Madian, Purg. xxiv. 125. 
Maia, Par. xxii. 140. 
Malacoda, H. xxi. 74, 77. 
Malaspina, Conrad, Purg. viii. 65 } 

117. 
Malatestino. See Rimini. 
Malavolti, Catalano de', H.xxiii. 105, 

116. 
Malebolge, H. xviii. 2; xxi. 5; xxiv. 

37 ; xxix. 39. 
Malta. Par. ix. 53. 
Manardi, Arrigo, Purg. xiv. 100. 
Manfredi, Purg. iii. 110. 
Manfredi, Alberigo de', H. xxxiii. 

116, 152. 
Manfredi, Tribaldello de', H. xxxii. 

119. 
Mangiadore, Pietro, Par. xii. 125. 
Manto, H. xx. 50. 
Mantua, H. ii. 59 ; xx. 91. Purg. 

Ti. 72 ; xyiii. 84. 
Mantuan, H. i. 64. Purg. yi. 74; vii. 

86. 
Marea d'Aneona, Purg. v. 67- 
Mareellus, Purg. yi. 127. 
Marcia, H. iy. 125. Purg. i. 79, 85. 
Marco. See Lombardo. 
Maremma, H. xxy. 18 ; xxix. 47. 

Purg. y. 132. 
Margaret, wife of Louis IX. of France, 

Purg. vii, 129. Par. yi. 135. 
Marocco, H. xxvi. 102. 
Mars, H. xxiv. 144. Purg. ii. 14; 

xii. 27. Par. iv. 64; viii. 138; 

xiv. 93 ; xvi. 45 ; xxvii. 13. 
Marseilles, Purg. xviii. 100. 
Marsyas, Par. i. 19. 
Martin, Par. xiii. 135. 
Martin IV. Purg. xxiv. 23. 
Mary, Purg. xxiii. 26. 
Mary of Brabant, Purg. vi. 24. 
Mary, the blessed Virgin, Purg. iii. 

37 ; v. 98 ; viii. 37 ; xv. 87 ; xviii. 

98 ; xxii. 139 ; xxxiii. 6. Par. iv. 

30; xi. 67; xiv. 33; xv. 125; xxiii. 

71, 109, 122, 132; xxv. 127 ; xxxi. 

124 ; xxxii. 3, 4, 95, 101 ; xxxiii. 1. 
Marzucco. See Scornigiani. 
Mascheroni, Sassol, H. xxxii. 63. 
Matilda, Purg. xxviii. 41 ; xxxii. 82 ; 

xxxiii. 119. 
Matteo, Par. xii. 111. 
Matthias, Saint, H. xix. 98. 
Medea, H. xviii. 94. 
Medicina, Piero da, H. xxviii. 69. 



Medusa, H. ix. 53. 

Megaera, H. ix. 47. 

Melchisedec, Par. viii. 130. 

Meleager, Purg. xxv. 22. 

Melissus, Par. xiii. 121. 

Menalippus, H. xxxii. 128. 

Mercabo, H. xxviii. 71. 

Mercury, Par. iv. 64. 

Metellus, Purg. ix. 130. 

Michael, the Archangel, Par. iv. 48. 

Michel. See Zanche. 

Michol, Purg. x. 63, 65. 

Midas, Purg. xx. 105. 

Milan, Purg. viii. 80 ; xviii. 120. 

Mincius, H. xx. 76. 

Minerva, Purg. xxx. 67- Par. ii. 8. 

Minos, H. v. 4, 20 ; xiii. 99 ; xx. 33 ; 

xxvii. 120 ; xxix. 114. Purg. i. 77. 
Minotaur, H. xii. 25. 
Mira, Purg. v. 79. 
Modena, Par. vi. 78. 
Mohammed, H. xxviii. 31, 58. 
Moldaw, Purg. vii. 99. 
Monaldi, Purg. vi. 108. 
Mongibello, H. xiv. 53. 
Montagna. See Parcitati. 
Montagues, Purg. vi. 107. 
Montaperto, H. xxxii. 81. 
Montefeltro, Purg. v. 87. 
Montefeltro, Guido da, H. xxvii. 64. 
Montemalo, Par. xv. 103. 
Montemurlo, Par. xvi. 63. 
Montereggion, H. xxxi. 36. 
Montferrat, Purg. vii. 138. 
Montfort, Guy de, H. xii. 119; xxxii. 

112. 
Montone, H. xvi. 94. 
Mordecai, Purg. xvii. 29. 
Mordrec, H. xxxii. 59. 
Moronto, Par. xv. 129. 
Mosca. See Uberti. 
Moses, H. iv. 54. Purg. xxxii. 79. 

Par. iv. 29; xxiv. 135; xxvi. 39; 

xxxii. 116. 
Mozzi, Andrea de', H. xv. 113. 
Mulciber, H. xiv. 54. 
Mutius. See Scaevola. 
Myrrha, H. xxx. 39. 

Naiads, Purg. xxxiii. 50. 

Naples, Purg. iii. 26. 

Narcissus, H. xxx. 128. Par. iii. 17. 

Nasidius, H. xxv. 87. 

Naso, H. iv. 85. See Ovid. 

Nathan, Par. xii. 127. 

Navarre, H. xxii. 47, 121. Purg. xx. 



INDEX, 



(539) 



64. Par. xix. 140. 
Nazareth, Par. ix. 133. 
Nebuchadnezzar, Par. iv. 13. 
Nella, Purg. xxiii. SO. 
Neptune, H. xxviii. 79. Par. xxxiii. 

91. 
Neri, H. xxiv. 142. 
Nerli, Par. xv. 110. 
Nessus, H. xii. 96; xiii. 1. 
Niccolo. See Salimbeni. 
Nicholas, Saint, Purg. xx. 30. 
Nicholas III. H. xix. 71. 
Nicosia, Par. xix. 144. 
Nile, H. xxxiy. 41. Purg. xxiy. 63. 

Par. yi. 68. 
Nimrod, H. xxxi. 70. Purg. xii. 29. 

Par. xxyi. 125. 
Nino. See Visconti. 
Ninus, H. y. 58. 
Niobe, Purg. xii. 33. 
Nisus, H. i. 105. 
Noah, H. iy. 53. Par. xii. 15. 
Nocera, Par. xi. 44. 
Noli, Purg. iy. 24. 
Nona, Yanni della, H. xxiy. 120. 
Norman, H. xxviii. 12. 
Normandy, Purg. xx. 64. 
Norway, Par. xix. 136. 
Noyara, H. xxyiii. 56. 
Noyello, Frederic. See Battifolle. 
Noyello, Guido; da Polenta, H. 

xxyii. 38. 

Obizzo. See Este. 

Octayius. See Caesar, Augustus. 

Oderigi. See Agobbio. 

Olympus, Purg. xxiy. 16. 

Omberto, Purg. xi. 67. 

Ordelaffi, or Ardelaffi, Sinibaldo, H. 

xxyii. 41. 
Orestes, Purg. xiii. 29. 
Oriaco, Purg. y. 80. 
Orlando, H. xxxi. 14. Par. xyiii. 40. 
Ormanni, Par. xvi. 87. 
Orosius, Paulus, Par. x. 116. 
Orpheus, H. iy. 137. 
Orsini, H. xix. 72. 
Orso, Count, Purg. yi. 20. 
Ostiense, Par. xii. 77. 
Ottayiano. See Ubaldini. 
Ottocar, Purer, yii. 100. 
Oyid, H. xxy. 87. See Naso. 

Pachynian, Par. yiii. 72. 
Padua, Par. ix. 46. 
Paduan, H. xyii. 67. 



Paduans, H. xy. 7. 

Paean, Par. xiii. 22. 

Pagani, Purg. xiy. 121. 

Pagano, Machinardo, H. xxyii. 47. 

Purg. xiy. 122. 
Palazzo, Conrad da, Purg. xyi. 126. 
Palermo, Par. yiii. 79. 
Palladium, H. xxyi. 66. 
Pallas, son of Eyander, Par. yi. 34. 
Pallas, Minerya, Purg. xii. 27- 
Paolo, H. y. 131. 

Parcitati, Montagna de', H. xxyii. 44. 
Paris, city, Purg. xi. 81 ; xx. 51. 
Paris, son of Priam, H. y. 66. 
Parmenides, Par. xiii. 120. 
Parnassian, Purg. xxii. 65 ; xxyiii . 

147. 
Parnassus, Par. i. 15. 
Pasiphae, H. xii. 14. Purg. xxyi. 36, 

78. 
Paul, Saint, H. ii. 34. Purg. xxix. 

135. Par.xviii. 128, 132; xxi. 119; 

xxyiii. 130. 
Pazzi, Carlino, H. xxxii. 66. 
Pazzo, Riniero, H. xii. 138. 
Pegasaean, Par. xviii. 76. 
Peleus, H. xxxi. 4. Purg. xxii. 113. 
Pelorus, Purg. xiy. 34. Par. yiii. 72. 
Peneian, Par. i. 31. 
Penelope, H. xxvi. 95. 
Penestrino, H. xxyii. 98. 
Penthesilea, H. iy. 121. 
Pera, Par. xvi. 124. 
Perillus, H. xxyii. 7. 
Persians, Par. xix. 111. 
Persius, Purg. xxii. 99. 
Perugia, Par. yi. 77 ; xi. 43. 
Peschiera, H. xx. 69. 
Peter, Saint, H. i. 130; ii. 26; xyiii. 

34; xix. 94, 97; xxxi. 54. Purg. 

ix. 119; xix. 97. Par. ix. 136; xi. 

112 ; xyiii. 128, 132; xxi. 118; xxii. 

86; xxiii. 133; xxiy. 35; xxy. 14; 

xxyii. 11; xxxii. 110, 118. 
Peter of Spain, Par. xii. 126. 
Peter III. of Spain, Purg. yii. 113, 

126. 
Pettinagno, Piero, Purg. xiii. 119. 
Phaedra, Par. xyii. 46. 
Phaeton, H. xyii. 102, Purg. iv. 68. 

Par. xvii. 1 ; xxxi. 116. 
Pharisees, H. xxiii. 118 ; xxyii. 81. 
Pharsalia, Par. vi. 67. 
Philip III. of France, Purg. yii. 104. 
Philip IY. of France, H. xix. 91. 

Purg. yii. Ill; xx.85. Par. xix. 117. 



(540) 



INDEX. 



Philips, Purg. xx. 49. 

Phlegethon, H. xiv. Ill, 126. 

Phlegraean, H. xiv. 55. 

Phlegyas, H. viii. 18, 23. 

Phoebus, H. xxvi. 115. 

Phoenicia, Par. xxvii. 78. 

Pholus, H. xii. 69. 

Photinus, H. xi. 9. 

Phrygian, Purg. xx. 113. 

Phyllis, Par. ix. 96. 

Pia, Purg. t. 131. 

Piava, Par. ix. 28. 

Piccarda, Purg. xxiv. 11. Par. iii. 

50; iy. 94, 108. 
Piceno, H. xxiy. 147. 
Pierian, Purg. xxxi. 141. 
Pietra, Nello della, Purg. y. 133. 
Pietrapaua, H. xxxii. 29. 
Pietro. See Mangiadore. 
Pietro Lombardo, Par. x. 104. 
Pigli, Par. xyi. 100. 
Pilate, Purg. xx. 91. 
Pinamonte. See Buonaeossi. 
Pisa, H. xxxiii. 30, 77. Purg. vi. 18. 
Pisans, Purg. xiv. 55. 
Pisces, H. xi. 118. Purg. i. 21. 
Pisistratus, Purg. xv. 95. 
Pistoia, H. xxiv. 124, 142; xxv. 9. 
Pius I. Par. xxvii. 40. 
Plato, H. iy. 131. Purg. iii. 41. Par. 

iv. 24. 
Plautus, Purg. xxii. 97. 
Plutus, H. vi. 117; vii. 2, 
Po, H. v. 97 ; xx. 77. Purg. xiv. 95 ; 

xvi. 117. Par. vi. 52. 
Poitou, Purg. xx. 64. 
Pola, H. ix. 112. 

Polenta, H. xxvii. 38. See Xovello. 
Polycletus, Purg. x. 30. 
Polydorus, H. xxx. 19. Purg. xx. 

113. 
Polyhymnia, Par. xxiii. 55. 
Polymnestor, Purg. xx. 112. 
Polynices, H. xxvi. 55. Purg. xxii. 

57. 
Polyxena, H. xxx. 18. 
Pompeian, Par. vi. 74. 
Pompey, Par. vi. 54. 
Ponthieu, Purg. xx. 64. 
Portugal, Par. xix. 135. 
Pouille, Purg. vii. 127. 
Prague, Par. xix. 116. 
Prata, Guido of, Purg. xiv. 107. 
Prato, H. xxvi. 9. 
Pratomagno, Purg. v. 115. 
Pressa, Par. xvi. 98. 



Priam, H. xxx. 15. 
Priscian, H. xv. 110. 
Proserpine, Purg. xxviii. 51. 
Provencals, Par. vi. 132. 
Provence, Purg. vii. 127 ; xx. 59. Par. 

viii. 60. 
Provenzano. See Salvani. 
Ptolemy, H. iv. 139. 
Ptolemy, king of Egypt, Par. vi. 71. 
Ptolomea, H. xxxiii. 123. 
Pygmalion, Purg. xx. 103. 
Pyramus, Purg. xxvii. 38 ; xxxiii. 69. 
Pyrrhus, H. xii. 135. Par. vi. 44. 

Quarnaro, H. ix. 112. 

Quintius Cincinnatus, Par. vi. 47 ; 

xv. 122, 
Quirinus, Par. viii. 137. 

Raban, Par. xii. 130. 

Rachel, H. ii. 102; iv. 57. Purg. 

xxvii. 105. Par. xxxii. 6. 
Rahab, Par. ix. 112. 

Raphael, Par. iv. 48. 

Ratza, Par. xix. 137. 

Ravenna, H. xxvii. 37. Par. vi. 63. 

Ravignani, Par. xvi. 60. 

Raymond. See Berenger. 

Rebecca, Par. xxxii. 7. 

Rehoboam, Purg. xii. 42. 

Renard, Par. xviii. 43. 

Reno, H. xviii. 61. Purg. xiv. 95. 

Rhea, H. xiv. 95. 

Rhine, Par. vi. 60. 

Rhodope, Par. ix. 96. 

Rhone, H. ix. 111. Par. vi. 62: viii. 

61. 
Rialto, Par. ix. 27. 
Richard. See Victor, Saint. 
Rigogliosi, Marchese de', Purg. xxiv. 

32. 
Rimini, Malatestino da, H. xxviii. 

81. 
Rinieri. See Calboli, Corneto, Pazzo. 
Riphaean, Purg. xxvi. 38. 
Ripheus, Par. xx. 62. 
Robert, Purg. xx. 57- 
Robert, king of Sicily, Par. viii. 81. 
Robert. See Guiscard. 
Rodolph, Emperor, Purg. vi. 104 ; 

vii. 94. Par. viii. 77. 
Romagna, H. xxvii. 25, 34; xxxiii. 

152. Purg. v. 68; xiv. 101; xv. 

43. 
Roman, Purg. x. 67 ; xxxii. 101. Par. 

vi. 43. 



INDEX. 



(541) 



Romano, Par. ix. 29. 

Romano, Azzolino cli, H. xii. 110. 
Par. ix. 30. 

Romans, H. xy. 77; xviii. 29. Par. 
xix. 98. 

Rome, H. i. 66 ; ii. 22 ; xiv. 100 
xxvi. 62; xxviii. 10. Purg. vi. 114 
xvi. 109, 129 ; xviii. 80 ; xix. 107 
xxi. 89 ; xxii. 143 ; xxix. Ill 
xxxii. 101. Par. vi. 59 ; ix. 135 
xv. 119 ; xvi. 10; xxiv. 64; xxvii. 
57 ; xxxi. 31. 

Romena, H. xxx. 72. 

Romeo, Par. vi. 131, 137. 

Romoaldo, Saint, Par. xxii. 48. 

Romulus. See Quirinus. 

Rubaconte, Purg. xii. 95. 

Rubicant, H. xxi. 121 ; xxii. 40. 

Rubicon, Par. vi. 64. 

Ruggieri. See Ubaldini. 

Rusticucci, Giacopo, H. vi. 80; xvi. 
45. 

Ruth, Par. xxxii. 7. 

Sabellius, Par. xiii. 123. 
Sabellus, H. xxv. 86. 
Sabines, Par. vi. 41. 
Sacchetti, Par. xvi. 101. 
* Saladin. See Soldan. 
Salem, Purg. ii. 3. 
Salimbeni, Niccolo, H. xxix. 123. 
(Salterello, Lapo, Par. xv. 120. 
Salvani, Provenzano, Purg. xi. 122. 
Samaria, Purg. xxi. 2. 
Samuel, Par. iv. 29. 
Sancha, wife of Richard, king of the 

Romans, Par. vi. 135. 
Sanleo, Purg. iv. 23. 
Sannella, Par. xvi. 89. 
Santafiore, Purg. vi. 113. 
Santerno, H. xxvii. 46. 
Sapia, Purg. xiii. 101. 
Sapphira, Purg. xx. 109. 
Saracens, H. xxvii. 83. Purg. xxiii. 

97. 
Sarah, Par. xxxii. 6. 
Sardanapalus, Par. xv. 102. 
Sardinia, H. xxii. 89; xxix. 47. Purg. 

xviii. 81 ; xxiii. 87. 
Sardinian, H. xxvi. 103. 
Satan, H. vii. 1. 
Saturn, H. xiv. 95. Purg. xix. 4. 

Par. xxi. 24. 
Savena, H. xviii. 61. 
Savio, H. xxvii. 50. 
Saul, Purg. xii. 35. 



Scaevola, Mutius, Par. iv. 82. 
Scala, Alboino della, Par. xvii. 69. 
Scala, Bartolommeo della, Par. xvii. 

69. 
Scala, Can Grande della, H. i. 98. 

Par. xvii. 75. 
Scarmiglione, H. xxi. 103. 
Schicchi, Gianni, H. xxx. 33. 
Sciancato, Puccio, H. xxv. 138. 
Scipio, H. xxxi. 106. Purg. xxix 

112. Par. vi. 54; xxvii. 57. 
Sclavonian, Purg. xxx. 88. 
Scornigiani, Farinata de', Purg. vi. 

18. 
Scornigiani, Marzucco, Purg. vi. 19. 
Scorpion, Purg. xxv. 4. 
Scot, Par. xix. 121. 
Scot, Michael, H. xx. 114. 
Scrovigni, II . xvii. 62. 
Scyros, Purg. ix. 35. 
Seine, Par. vi. 61 ; xix. 118. 
Semele, H. xxx. 2. Par. xxi. 5. 
Semiramis, H. v. 57. 
Seneca, H. iv. 138. 
Sennaar, Purg. xii. 32. 
Sennacherib, Purg. xii. 48. 
September, H. xxix. 46. 
Serchio, H. xxi. 48. 
Sestus, Purg. xxviii. 74. 
Seville, H. xx. 125; xxvi. 108. 
Sextus Tarquinius, or Sextus Pom- 

peius, H. xii. 135. 
Sextus I. Par. xxvii. 40. 
Sibyl, Par. xxxiii. 63. 
Sicha?us, H. v. 61. Par. ix. 94. 
Sicilian, H. xxvii. 6. 
Sicilv, H. xii. 108. Purg. iii. 113. 

Par. xix. 128. 
Sienna, H. xxix. 105, 118. Purg. v. 

131; xi. 112,124,135; xiii. 98. 
Siennese, H. xxix. 131. Purg. xi. 65. 
Siestri, Purg. xix. 99. 
Sifanti, Par. xvi. 102. 
Sigebert, Par. x. 132. 
Signa, Bonifazio da, Par. xvi. 54. 
Sile, Par. ix. 48. 
Silvius, H. ii. 14. 
Simifonte, Par. xvi. 61. 
Simois, Par. vi. 70. 
Simon Magus, H. xix. 1. Par. xxx 

145. 
Simonides, Purg. xxii. 106. 
Sinigaglia, Par. xvi. 74. 
Sinon, H. xxx. 97, 115. 
Sion, Purg. iv. 65. 
Sismondi, H. xxxiii. 32, 



(542) 



INDEX. 



Sizii, Par. xvi. 106. 

Socrates, H. iv. 131. 

Sodom, H. xi. 53. Purg. xxvi. 35, 72. 

Soldan, H. iv. 126 ; v. 59 ; xxvii. 85. 

Par. xi. 94. 
Soldanieri, Par. xvi. 90. 
Soldanieri, Gianni del, H. xxxii. 118. 
Solomon, Par. x. 105 ; xiii. 85. 
Solon, Par. viii. 129. 
Soracte, H. xxvii. 89. 
Sordello, Purg. vi. 75; vii. 2, 52; 

viii. 38, 43, 62, 93 ; ix. 53. 
Sorga, Par. viii. 61. 
Spain, Purg. xviii. 101. Par. vi. 65 ; 

xii. 42. See Peter. 
Spaniard, Par. xix. 122 ; xxix. 108. 
Sphinx, Purg. xxxiii. 47. 
Statius, Purg. xxi. 92 ; xxii. 26 ; xxv. 

30, 35 ; xxvii. 47 ; xxxii. 28 ; xxxiii. 

15, 133. 
Stephen, Saint, Purg. xv. 105. 
Stricca, H. xxix. 121. 
Strophades, H. xiii. 12. 
Stygian, H. vii. 110 ; ix. 80. 
Styx, H. xiv. 111. 
Suabia, Par. iii. 122. 
Sylvester, the Franciscan, Par. xi. 76. 
Sylvester, Pope, H. xxvii. 90. 
Syren, Purg. xix. 18. Par. xii. 7. 
Syrinx, Purg. xxxii. 64. 

Tabernich, H. xxxii. 29. 

Tabor, Purg. xxxii. 73. 

Tacco. See Ghino. 

Taddeo, Par. xii. 77. 

Tagliacozzo, H. xxviii. 16. 

Tagliamento, Par. ix. 44. 

Tanais, H. xxxii. 27. 

Tarlatti, Cione, or Ciacco de', Purg. 

vi. 15. 
Tarpeian, Purg. ix. 129. 
Tarquin the Proud, H. iv. 124. 
Tartars, H. xvii. 16. 
Taurus, Purg. xxv. 3. Par. xxii. 

107. 
Tegghiaio. See Aldobrandi. 
Telamone, Purg. xiii. 142. 
Telemachus, H. xxvi. 93. 
Tellus, Purg. xxix. 115. 
Terence, Purg. xxii. 96. 
Thais, H. xviii. 130. 
Thales, H. iv. 135. 
Thames, H. xii. 120. 
Thaumantian, Purg. xxi. 49. 
Theban, H. xiv. 65; xxvi. 55; xxx. 2. 
Thebes, H. xx. 30 ; xxv. 15 ; xxx. 23; 



xxxii. 11 ; xxxiii. 90. Purg. xviii. 

92 ; xxi. 92 ; xxii. 88. 
Themis, Purg. xxxiii. 47. 
Theseus, H. ix. 55. Purg. xxi v. 122. 
Thetis, Purg. xxii. 112. 
Thibault, king, H. xxii. 51. 
Thisbe, Purg. xxvii. 37. 
Thomas, Saint, Par. xvi. 128. 
Thomas, Saint, Aquinas, Purg. xx. 

67. Par. x. 96 ; xii. 103, 133 ; xiii. 

29 ; xiv. 6. 
Thracia, Purg. xx. 112. 
Thymbrsean, Purg. xii. 26. 
Tiber, H. xxvii. 28. Purg. ii. 97. 

Par. xi. 99. 
Tiberius, Par. vi. 89. 
Tignoso, Federigo, Purg. xiv. 108. 
Tigris, Purg. xxxiii. 112. 
TiniEeus, Par. iv. 50. 
Tiresias, H. xx. 37. Purg. xxii. 112. 
Tisiphone, H. ix. 48. 
Tithonus, Purg. ix. 1. 
Titus, Purg. xxi. 83. Par. vi. 94. 
Tityus, H. xxxi. 115. 
Tobias, Par. iv. 49. 
Tolosa, Purg. xxi. 89. 
Tomyris, Purg. xii. 51. 
Toppo, H. xiii. 123. 
Torquatus, Par. vi. 46. 
Tosa,della. See Cianghella. 
Tosinghi, Par. xvi. 103, 110. 
Tours, Purg. xxiv. 23. 
Trajan, Purg. x. 69. Par. xx. 39. 
Traversaro, Purg. xiv. 109. 
Traversaro, Piero, Purg. xiv. 100. 
Trento, city, H. xii. 5 ; xx. 65. 
Trento, river, Par. viii. 65. 
Trespiano, Par. xvi. 52. 
Tribaldello. See Manfredi. 
Trinacria, Par. viii. 73. 
Tristan, H. v. 66. 
Trivia, Par. xxiii. 25. 
Trojan, H. xiii. 12 ; xxviii. 8. Par. 

xx. 62. 
Tronto, river. See Trento. 
Troy, H. i. 70 ; xxvi. 65 ; xxx. 14, 23, 

97, 113. Purg. xii. 55. Par. xv. 119. 
Tully, H. iv. 138. 
Tupino, Par. xi. 40. 
Turbia, Purg. iii. 49. 
Turks, H. xvii. 16. 
Turnus, H. i. 105. 
Tuscan, H. xxii. 97; xxiii. 76, 92; 

xxviii. 104; xxxii. 63. Purg. xi. 

58; xiii. 139; xiv. 105, 128; xvi. 

141. Par. ix. 87 ; xxii. 114. 



INDEX. 



(543) 



Tuscany, H. xxiv. 121. Purg. xi. 

110; xiv. 17. 
Tydeus, H. xxxii. 128. 
Typkoeus, Par. viii. 74. 
Typhon, H. xxxi. 115. 
Tyrol, H. xx. 59. 

Valbona, Lizio di, Purg. xiv. 99. 
Valdichiana, H. xxix. 45. 
Valdigrieve, Par. xvi. 65. 
Valdiniagra, H. xxiy. 144. Purg. viii. 

115. 
Valdipado, Par. xv. 130. 
Valeri, Sieur de. See Alardo. 
Vanni. See Fucci. 
Var, Par. vi. 60. 
Varro, Purg. xxii. 97. 
Vatican, Par. ix. 134. 
Ubaldini, Ottaviano degli, H. x. 121. 
Ubaldini, Ruggieri degli, H. xxxiii. 

15. 
Ubaldini, Ubaldino degli; of Pisa, 

Purg. xxiv. 29. 
Ubaldini, Ugolino degli ; of Azzo, 

Purg. xiv. 107. 
Ubaldini, Ugolino ; of Faenza, Purg. 

xiv. 124. 
Ubaldo, Par. xi. 41. 
Ubbriachi, H. xvii. 60. 
Uberti, H. xxiii. 110. 
Uberti, Farinata degli, H. vi. 79; x. 

32. 
Uberti, Mosca degli, H. vi. 81 ; xxviii. 

102. 
Ubertino, Par. xii. 115. 
Ubertino. See Donati. 
Uberto, Par. xii. 111. 
Uccellatojo, Par. xv. 104. 
Vecchio, Par. xv. 110. 
Yenedico. See Caccianimico. 
Yenetians, H. xxi. 7. 
Yenice, Par. xix. 138. 
Venus, Purg. xxvii. 94. 
Vercelli, H. xxviii. 71. 
Verde, Purg. iii. 127. Par. viii. 66. 
Verona, H. xv. 124. Purg. xviii. 117. 



Veronese, H. xx. 66. 

Veronica, Par. xxxi. 95. 

Verruchio, H. xxvii. 43. 

Vesulo, H. xvi. 95. 

Ughi, Par. xvi. 86. 

Ugo, Par. xvi. 127. 

Ugolino. See Fantolini, Gherardes- 

chi, and Ubaldini. 
Uguccione, son of Count Ugolino de' 

Gherardeschi, H. xxxiii. 88. 
Vicenza, Par. ix. 47. 
Victor, Saint, Hugues of, Par. xii. 

125. 
Victor, Saint, Richard of, Par. x. 127. 
Vigne, Piero delle, H. xiii. 60. 
Virgil, passim. 
Visconti, Galeazzo de' ; of Milan, 

Purg. viii. 80, 108. 
Visconti, Nino de' ; di Gallura, H. 

xxii. 82. Purg. viii. 53, 81, 108. 
Visdomini, Par. xvi. 110. 
Yitaliano. See Dente. 
Ulysses, H. xxvi. 56. Purg. xix. 21. 

Par. xxvii. 77. 
Urania, Purg. xxix. 39. 
Urban I. Par. xxvii. 41. 
Urbiciani. See Buonaggiunta. 
Urbino, H. xxvii. 27. 
Urbisaglia, Par. xvi. 72. 
Utica, Purg. i. 74. 

YTilliam, Marquis of Montferrat, 

Purg.vii. 136. 
William, of Orange, Par. xviii. 43. 
William II. of Sicily, Par. xx. 57. 
AYinceslaus II. Purg. vii. 102. Par. 

xix. 123. 

Xerxes, Purg. xxviii. 70. Par. viii. 
130. 

Zanche, Michel, H. xxii. 88 ; xxxiii. 

143. 
Zeno, H. iv. 136. 
Zeno, San, Purg. xviii. 118. 
Zita, Santa, H. xxi. 37. 



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